diff --git a/src/conf/domain_conf.c b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
index f9007ce5a9..55e6c3433d 100644
--- a/src/conf/domain_conf.c
+++ b/src/conf/domain_conf.c
@@ -2554,7 +2554,7 @@ virDomainDiskDefParseXML(virCapsPtr caps,
     }
 
     if (error_policy &&
-        (def->error_policy = virDomainDiskErrorPolicyTypeFromString(error_policy)) < 0) {
+        (def->error_policy = virDomainDiskErrorPolicyTypeFromString(error_policy)) <= 0) {
         virDomainReportError(VIR_ERR_INTERNAL_ERROR,
                              _("unknown disk error policy '%s'"), error_policy);
         goto error;
diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 123bcabd70..5f729a4fa1 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -1696,15 +1696,16 @@ qemuBuildDriveStr(virDomainDiskDefPtr disk,
 
         if (disk->error_policy)
             wpolicy = virDomainDiskErrorPolicyTypeToString(disk->error_policy);
-        if (!rpolicy)
-            rpolicy = wpolicy;
 
         if (disk->error_policy == VIR_DOMAIN_DISK_ERROR_POLICY_ENOSPACE) {
-            /* in the case of enospace, the option is spelled differently in qemu,
-             * and it's only valid for werror, not for rerror.
+            /* in the case of enospace, the option is spelled
+             * differently in qemu, and it's only valid for werror,
+             * not for rerror, so leave leave rerror NULL.
              */
-            wpolicy="enospc";
-            rpolicy="ignore";
+            wpolicy = "enospc";
+        } else if (!rpolicy) {
+            /* for other policies, rpolicy can match wpolicy */
+            rpolicy = wpolicy;
         }
 
         if (wpolicy)
@@ -5636,7 +5637,7 @@ qemuParseCommandLineDisk(virCapsPtr caps,
                 def->error_policy = VIR_DOMAIN_DISK_ERROR_POLICY_STOP;
             else if (STREQ(values[i], "ignore"))
                 def->error_policy = VIR_DOMAIN_DISK_ERROR_POLICY_IGNORE;
-            else if (STREQ(values[i], "enospace"))
+            else if (STREQ(values[i], "enospc"))
                 def->error_policy = VIR_DOMAIN_DISK_ERROR_POLICY_ENOSPACE;
         } else if (STREQ(keywords[i], "index")) {
             if (virStrToLong_i(values[i], NULL, 10, &idx) < 0) {
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-disk-drive-error-policy-enospace.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-disk-drive-error-policy-enospace.args
index 267eb5fa10..981d410431 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-disk-drive-error-policy-enospace.args
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/qemuxml2argv-disk-drive-error-policy-enospace.args
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 LC_ALL=C PATH=/bin HOME=/home/test USER=test LOGNAME=test /usr/bin/qemu -S -M \
 pc -m 214 -smp 1 -nographic -monitor unix:/tmp/test-monitor,server,nowait \
 -no-acpi -boot c -drive file=/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest1,if=ide,bus=0,unit=0,\
-format=qcow2,cache=off,werror=enospace,rerror=enospace -drive \
+format=qcow2,cache=off,werror=enospc -drive \
 file=/dev/HostVG/QEMUGuest2,if=ide,media=cdrom,bus=1,unit=0,format=raw -net \
 none -serial none -parallel none -usb
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
index 9e174b378f..24e831cf0a 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvtest.c
@@ -332,6 +332,8 @@ mymain(void)
             QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE, QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE_FORMAT);
     DO_TEST("disk-drive-error-policy-stop", false,
             QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE, QEMU_CAPS_MONITOR_JSON, QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE_FORMAT);
+    DO_TEST("disk-drive-error-policy-enospace", false,
+            QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE, QEMU_CAPS_MONITOR_JSON, QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE_FORMAT);
     DO_TEST("disk-drive-cache-v2-wt", false,
             QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE, QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE_CACHE_V2, QEMU_CAPS_DRIVE_FORMAT);
     DO_TEST("disk-drive-cache-v2-wb", false,