diff --git a/src/basic/exec-util.c b/src/basic/exec-util.c
index aa26902a20..32c6418482 100644
--- a/src/basic/exec-util.c
+++ b/src/basic/exec-util.c
@@ -268,8 +268,8 @@ static int gather_environment_generate(int fd, void *arg) {
 }
 
 static int gather_environment_collect(int fd, void *arg) {
-        char ***env = arg;
         _cleanup_fclose_ FILE *f = NULL;
+        char ***env = arg;
         int r;
 
         /* Write out a series of env=cescape(VAR=value) assignments to fd. */
@@ -286,8 +286,9 @@ static int gather_environment_collect(int fd, void *arg) {
         if (r < 0)
                 return r;
 
-        if (ferror(f))
-                return errno > 0 ? -errno : -EIO;
+        r = fflush_and_check(f);
+        if (r < 0)
+                return r;
 
         return 0;
 }
diff --git a/src/core/service.c b/src/core/service.c
index 29a70d1eea..660536837e 100644
--- a/src/core/service.c
+++ b/src/core/service.c
@@ -2612,10 +2612,10 @@ static int service_deserialize_exec_command(Unit *u, const char *key, const char
                 _cleanup_free_ char *arg = NULL;
 
                 r = extract_first_word(&value, &arg, NULL, EXTRACT_CUNESCAPE);
+                if (r < 0)
+                        return r;
                 if (r == 0)
                         break;
-                else if (r < 0)
-                        return r;
 
                 switch (state) {
                 case STATE_EXEC_COMMAND_TYPE:
@@ -2755,10 +2755,8 @@ static int service_deserialize_item(Unit *u, const char *key, const char *value,
                 r = cunescape(value, 0, &t);
                 if (r < 0)
                         log_unit_debug_errno(u, r, "Failed to unescape status text: %s", value);
-                else {
-                        free(s->status_text);
-                        s->status_text = t;
-                }
+                else
+                        free_and_replace(s->status_text, t);
 
         } else if (streq(key, "accept-socket")) {
                 Unit *socket;