diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 46963f308..a78002e97 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 ver 0.17.3 (2012/??/??)
 * output:
+  - recorder: fix I/O error check
   - shout: fix memory leak in error handler
 
 ver 0.17.2 (2012/09/30)
diff --git a/src/output/recorder_output_plugin.c b/src/output/recorder_output_plugin.c
index 5d098f08f..e2366bf90 100644
--- a/src/output/recorder_output_plugin.c
+++ b/src/output/recorder_output_plugin.c
@@ -140,9 +140,9 @@ recorder_output_encoder_to_file(struct recorder_output *recorder,
 
 	size_t position = 0;
 	while (true) {
-		size_t nbytes = write(recorder->fd,
-				      recorder->buffer + position,
-				      size - position);
+		ssize_t nbytes = write(recorder->fd,
+				       recorder->buffer + position,
+				       size - position);
 		if (nbytes > 0) {
 			position += (size_t)nbytes;
 			if (position >= size)