diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 2985614b..e7597d2e 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ procps-ng-NEXT
   * library: don't strip off wchan prefixes (ps & top)     Redhat #1322111
   * top: add config file support for XDG specification
   * pgrep: warn about 15+ char name only if -f not used
+  * pkill: Return 0 only if we can kill process            Debian #852758
 
 procps-ng-3.3.12
 ----------------
diff --git a/pgrep.1 b/pgrep.1
index 8578965f..f2aefff2 100644
--- a/pgrep.1
+++ b/pgrep.1
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
-.\" Manual page for pgrep / pkill.
-.\" Licensed under version 2 of the GNU General Public License.
-.\" Copyright 2000 Kjetil Torgrim Homme
 .\"
-.TH PGREP "1" "September 2015" "procps-ng" "User Commands"
+.\" Copyright 2000 Kjetil Torgrim Homme
+.\"           2017 Craig Small
+.\"
+.\" This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+.\" it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+.\" the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+.\" (at your option) any later version.
+.\"
+.TH PGREP "1" "2017-02-04" "procps-ng" "User Commands"
 .SH NAME
 pgrep, pkill \- look up or signal processes based on name and other attributes
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -197,10 +202,11 @@ $ renice +4 $(pgrep netscape)
 .PD 0
 .TP
 0
-One or more processes matched the criteria.
+One or more processes matched the criteria. For pkill the process must also
+have been successfully signalled.
 .TP
 1
-No processes matched.
+No processes matched or none of them could be signalled.
 .TP
 2
 Syntax error in the command line.
diff --git a/pgrep.c b/pgrep.c
index 82f7d6e8..7aae2584 100644
--- a/pgrep.c
+++ b/pgrep.c
@@ -866,10 +866,12 @@ int main (int argc, char **argv)
     procs = select_procs (&num);
     if (i_am_pkill) {
         int i;
+        int kill_count = 0;
         for (i = 0; i < num; i++) {
             if (kill (procs[i].num, opt_signal) != -1) {
                 if (opt_echo)
                     printf(_("%s killed (pid %lu)\n"), procs[i].str, procs[i].num);
+                kill_count++;
                 continue;
             }
             if (errno==ESRCH)
@@ -879,6 +881,7 @@ int main (int argc, char **argv)
         }
         if (opt_count)
             fprintf(stdout, "%d\n", num);
+        return !kill_count;
     } else {
         if (opt_count) {
             fprintf(stdout, "%d\n", num);