diff --git a/lib/netdb/writev.c b/lib/netdb/writev.c
index a20881a..5ff6f25 100644
--- a/lib/netdb/writev.c
+++ b/lib/netdb/writev.c
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 
 /* MAJOR HACK ALERT!  This won't work right for packet based sockets! */
 
-size_t writev(int fd, struct iovec *iov, int iovcnt)
+ssize_t writev(int fd, struct iovec *iov, int iovcnt)
 {
 int i;
 size_t size, total_size = 0;