diff --git a/src/common/slurm_protocol_util.c b/src/common/slurm_protocol_util.c
index 2727dce5e22dc4cb06a6ffd0ffadc2ba7e9c5d63..638c2a3da2e4d23b619c73316ec3af636efdea26 100644
--- a/src/common/slurm_protocol_util.c
+++ b/src/common/slurm_protocol_util.c
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
  * IN header - the message header received
  * RET - SLURM error code
  */
-uint32_t check_header_version(header_t * header)
+int check_header_version(header_t * header)
 {
 	if (header->version != SLURM_PROTOCOL_VERSION) {
 		debug("Invalid Protocol Version %d", header->version);
diff --git a/src/common/slurm_protocol_util.h b/src/common/slurm_protocol_util.h
index 35070bc5b00a41bc48671d486ad6bc9402b87e7f..44c1d839fb68b91b99aab44e88b79a1efb6cb356 100644
--- a/src/common/slurm_protocol_util.h
+++ b/src/common/slurm_protocol_util.h
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@
  * IN header - the message header received
  * RET - SLURM error code
  */
-extern uint32_t check_header_version(header_t * header);
+extern int check_header_version(header_t * header);
 
 /*
  * init_header - simple function to create a header, always insuring that