diff --git a/zipl/src/job.c b/zipl/src/job.c
index b06a4824..9d5f00b6 100644
--- a/zipl/src/job.c
+++ b/zipl/src/job.c
@@ -1732,7 +1732,7 @@ get_job_from_config_file(struct command_line* cmdline, struct job_data* job)
 	struct scan_token* new_scan;
 	char* filename;
 	char* source;
-	int rc;
+	int rc, scan_size;
 
 	/* Read configuration file */
 	if (cmdline->config != NULL) {
@@ -1750,10 +1750,10 @@ get_job_from_config_file(struct command_line* cmdline, struct job_data* job)
 		source = "";
 	}
 	printf("Using config file '%s'%s\n", filename, source);
-	rc = scan_file(filename, &scan);
-	if (rc) {
+	scan_size = scan_file(filename, &scan);
+	if (scan_size <= 0) {
 		error_text("Config file '%s'", filename);
-		return rc;
+		return scan_size;
 	}
 	if ((cmdline->menu == NULL) && (cmdline->section == NULL)) {
 		rc = scan_check_defaultboot(scan);
diff --git a/zipl/src/scan.c b/zipl/src/scan.c
index 7465d6cc..adb288e0 100644
--- a/zipl/src/scan.c
+++ b/zipl/src/scan.c
@@ -538,9 +538,9 @@ scan_free(struct scan_token* array)
 
 #define INITIAL_ARRAY_LENGTH 40
 
-/* Scan file FILENAME for tokens. Upon success, return zero and set TOKEN
- * to point to a NULL-terminated array of scan_tokens, i.e. the token id
- * of the last token is 0. Return non-zero otherwise. */
+/* Scan file FILENAME for tokens. Upon success, return the number allocated
+ * tokens and set TOKEN to point to a NULL-terminated array of scan_tokens,
+ * i.e. the token id of the last token is 0. Return non-zero otherwise. */
 int
 scan_file(const char* filename, struct scan_token** token)
 {
@@ -623,11 +623,13 @@ scan_file(const char* filename, struct scan_token** token)
 		}
 	}
 	misc_free_file_buffer(&file);
-	if (rc)
+	if (rc) {
 		scan_free(array);
-	else
-		*token = array;
-	return rc;
+		return rc;
+	}
+
+	*token = array;
+	return size;
 }