diff --git a/expose.cpp b/expose.cpp
index 7507f6341..346eb14ca 100644
--- a/expose.cpp
+++ b/expose.cpp
@@ -403,12 +403,13 @@ extern "C"
         return gpttype_clear_state_kv(true);
     }
 
-    void set_environment_variable(const char * identifier, const char * value)
+    int set_environment_variable(const char * identifier, const char * value)
     {
+        if (!identifier || !value) return -1;
         #ifdef _WIN32
-            _putenv_s(identifier, value);
+            return _putenv_s(identifier, value);
         #else
-            setenv(identifier, value, 1);
+            return setenv(identifier, value, 1);
         #endif
     }
 }
diff --git a/koboldcpp.py b/koboldcpp.py
index 21e19f2a0..211f4170e 100644
--- a/koboldcpp.py
+++ b/koboldcpp.py
@@ -949,6 +949,8 @@ def init_library():
     handle.last_logprobs.restype = last_logprobs_outputs
     handle.detokenize.argtypes = [token_count_outputs]
     handle.detokenize.restype = ctypes.c_char_p
+    handle.set_environment_variable.restype = ctypes.c_int
+    handle.set_environment_variable.argtypes = [ctypes.c_char_p, ctypes.c_char_p]
 
 def set_backend_props(inputs):
     # we must force an explicit tensor split