diff --git a/usr.bin/tar/util.c b/usr.bin/tar/util.c
index 858d472cba70..4177e9ce6447 100644
--- a/usr.bin/tar/util.c
+++ b/usr.bin/tar/util.c
@@ -226,7 +226,11 @@ yes(const char *fmt, ...)
 	fflush(stderr);
 
 	l = read(2, buff, sizeof(buff) - 1);
-	if (l <= 0)
+	if (l < 0) {
+	  fprintf(stderr, "Keyboard read failed\n");
+	  exit(1);
+	}
+	if (l == 0)
 		return (0);
 	buff[l] = 0;
 
diff --git a/usr.bin/tar/write.c b/usr.bin/tar/write.c
index e59f64704edb..838dffb45766 100644
--- a/usr.bin/tar/write.c
+++ b/usr.bin/tar/write.c
@@ -919,6 +919,7 @@ write_entry_backend(struct bsdtar *bsdtar, struct archive *a,
 		const char *pathname = archive_entry_sourcepath(entry);
 		fd = open(pathname, O_RDONLY | O_BINARY);
 		if (fd == -1) {
+			bsdtar->return_value = 1;
 			if (!bsdtar->verbose)
 				bsdtar_warnc(errno,
 				    "%s: could not open file", pathname);
@@ -1020,6 +1021,12 @@ write_file_data(struct bsdtar *bsdtar, struct archive *a,
 		progress += bytes_written;
 		bytes_read = read(fd, bsdtar->buff, FILEDATABUFLEN);
 	}
+	if (bytes_read < 0) {
+		bsdtar_warnc(errno,
+			     "%s: Read error",
+			     archive_entry_pathname(entry));
+		bsdtar->return_value = 1;
+	}
 	return 0;
 }