diff --git a/src/config2setopts.c b/src/config2setopts.c
index 4d62e67106..baa4155482 100644
--- a/src/config2setopts.c
+++ b/src/config2setopts.c
@@ -949,11 +949,13 @@ static CURLcode credentials_and_headers_setopts(struct OperationConfig *config,
     my_setopt_bitmask(curl, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, config->authtype);
 
   result = my_setopt_slist(curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, config->headers);
-  if(result) {
+  if(result == CURLE_BAD_FUNCTION_ARGUMENT) {
     errorf("Illegal CRL/LF in --header data");
     config->synthetic_error = TRUE;
     return result;
   }
+  if(setopt_bad(result))
+    return result;
 
   if(proto_http || proto_rtsp) {
     MY_SETOPT_STR(curl, CURLOPT_REFERER, config->referer);