diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 463c10002..35144992d 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ Changes that could break older environments:
 
 * <scriptcondition> now prefers evaluation result/return value over value property.
 
+* <java> with fork now returns gives -1 instead of 0 as result when failonerror
+  is false and some exception (including timeout) occurs. Br 42377. 
+
 Fixed bugs:
 -----------
 * Regression: Locator fails with URI encoding problem when spaces in path
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Java.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Java.java
index 2dfa82988..ff6d1501e 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Java.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Java.java
@@ -228,7 +228,7 @@ public class Java extends Task {
                 throw e;
             } else {
                 log(e);
-                return 0;
+                return -1;
             }
         } catch (ThreadDeath t) {
             throw t; // cf. NB #47191
@@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ public class Java extends Task {
                 throw new BuildException(t, getLocation());
             } else {
                 log(t);
-                return 0;
+                return -1;
             }
         }
     }