diff --git a/truncate.c b/truncate.c
index 56793e5..b34fd9a 100644
--- a/truncate.c
+++ b/truncate.c
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <errno.h>
 #include "util.h"
 
 static void
@@ -16,7 +18,7 @@ int
 main(int argc, char *argv[])
 {
 	int cflag = 0, sflag = 0;
-	int fd, i;
+	int fd, i, ret = EXIT_SUCCESS;
 	long size;
 
 	ARGBEGIN {
@@ -36,11 +38,18 @@ main(int argc, char *argv[])
 
 	for (i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
 		fd = open(argv[i], O_WRONLY | (cflag ? 0 : O_CREAT), 0644);
-		if (fd < 0)
-			eprintf("open %s:", argv[i]);
-		if (ftruncate(fd, size) < 0)
-			eprintf("ftruncate: %s:", argv[i]);
+		if (fd < 0) {
+			fprintf(stderr, "open: cannot open `%s' for writing: %s\n",
+			        argv[i], strerror(errno));
+			ret = EXIT_FAILURE;
+			continue;
+		}
+		if (ftruncate(fd, size) < 0) {
+			fprintf(stderr, "truncate: cannot open `%s' for writing: %s\n",
+			        argv[i], strerror(errno));
+			ret = EXIT_FAILURE;
+		}
 		close(fd);
 	}
-	return EXIT_SUCCESS;
+	return ret;
 }