diff --git a/libavutil/file.h b/libavutil/file.h
index a7364fe8fe5c7405e28c896dff0e0b1a222c1d63..1cae2951beba6501ea98eb30b7281d74fb715400 100644
--- a/libavutil/file.h
+++ b/libavutil/file.h
@@ -55,7 +55,8 @@ void av_file_unmap(uint8_t *bufptr, size_t size);
  * Wrapper to work around the lack of mkstemp() on mingw.
  * Also, tries to create file in /tmp first, if possible.
  * *prefix can be a character constant; *filename will be allocated internally.
- * @return file descriptor of opened file (or -1 on error)
+ * @return file descriptor of opened file (or negative value corresponding to an
+ * AVERROR code on error)
  * and opened file name in **filename.
  * @note On very old libcs it is necessary to set a secure umask before
  *       calling this, av_tempfile() can't call umask itself as it is used in