diff --git a/src/ALL_fortran.cpp b/src/ALL_fortran.cpp
index 36f46c31d0e622db2dbfd88fba1883cf7879e3bc..004cda9edfd2efb234118882c33e4cb864059b75 100644
--- a/src/ALL_fortran.cpp
+++ b/src/ALL_fortran.cpp
@@ -302,6 +302,10 @@ void all_errdesc_c(char *description, size_t len) {
   } else {
     strncpy(description, "No error", len);
   }
+  // Use space padding instead of zero padding
+  // WARNING: The result is no longer a zero terminated string!
+  size_t msg_len = strlen(description);
+  memset(description+msg_len, ' ', len-msg_len);
 }
 }//extern "C"