diff --git a/disk-utils/mkfs.minix.c b/disk-utils/mkfs.minix.c
index 96d36b034..98a62668a 100644
--- a/disk-utils/mkfs.minix.c
+++ b/disk-utils/mkfs.minix.c
@@ -77,6 +77,8 @@
 #include "all-io.h"
 #include "closestream.h"
 #include "ismounted.h"
+
+#define XALLOC_EXIT_CODE MKFS_EX_ERROR
 #include "xalloc.h"
 
 #define MINIX_ROOT_INO 1
diff --git a/misc-utils/blkid.c b/misc-utils/blkid.c
index 73731f0b8..3e6f1ce06 100644
--- a/misc-utils/blkid.c
+++ b/misc-utils/blkid.c
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@
 
 #include "nls.h"
 #include "ttyutils.h"
+
+#define XALLOC_EXIT_CODE    BLKID_EXIT_OTHER    /* x.*alloc(), xstrndup() */
 #include "xalloc.h"
 
 struct blkid_control {
diff --git a/sys-utils/hwclock.c b/sys-utils/hwclock.c
index 325106afc..5c341446d 100644
--- a/sys-utils/hwclock.c
+++ b/sys-utils/hwclock.c
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 
 #define OPTUTILS_EXIT_CODE EX_USAGE
+#define XALLOC_EXIT_CODE EX_OSERR
 
 #include "c.h"
 #include "closestream.h"
diff --git a/sys-utils/mount.c b/sys-utils/mount.c
index 0f7fa9097..ffe294e3f 100644
--- a/sys-utils/mount.c
+++ b/sys-utils/mount.c
@@ -36,10 +36,12 @@
 #include "c.h"
 #include "env.h"
 #include "strutils.h"
-#include "xalloc.h"
 #include "closestream.h"
 #include "canonicalize.h"
 
+#define XALLOC_EXIT_CODE MNT_EX_SYSERR
+#include "xalloc.h"
+
 #define OPTUTILS_EXIT_CODE MNT_EX_USAGE
 #include "optutils.h"
 
diff --git a/sys-utils/umount.c b/sys-utils/umount.c
index ed8fd4fe2..2dfb13975 100644
--- a/sys-utils/umount.c
+++ b/sys-utils/umount.c
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@
 #include "closestream.h"
 #include "pathnames.h"
 #include "canonicalize.h"
+
+#define XALLOC_EXIT_CODE MNT_EX_SYSERR
 #include "xalloc.h"
 
 static int table_parser_errcb(struct libmnt_table *tb __attribute__((__unused__)),