diff --git a/src/bin/pg_combinebackup/copy_file.c b/src/bin/pg_combinebackup/copy_file.c
index dd3c0dc1c89..0287d6e87df 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_combinebackup/copy_file.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_combinebackup/copy_file.c
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ copy_file_blocks(const char *src, const char *dst,
 	}
 
 	if (rb < 0)
-		pg_fatal("could not read from file \"%s\": %m", dst);
+		pg_fatal("could not read from file \"%s\": %m", src);
 
 	pg_free(buffer);
 	close(src_fd);
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_combinebackup/pg_combinebackup.c b/src/bin/pg_combinebackup/pg_combinebackup.c
index 918b8b35646..b9f26ce782e 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_combinebackup/pg_combinebackup.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_combinebackup/pg_combinebackup.c
@@ -501,7 +501,7 @@ add_tablespace_mapping(cb_options *opt, char *arg)
 				 tsmap->old_dir);
 
 	if (!is_absolute_path(tsmap->new_dir))
-		pg_fatal("old directory is not an absolute path in tablespace mapping: %s",
+		pg_fatal("new directory is not an absolute path in tablespace mapping: %s",
 				 tsmap->new_dir);
 
 	/* Canonicalize paths to avoid spurious failures when comparing. */
diff --git a/src/bin/pg_rewind/file_ops.c b/src/bin/pg_rewind/file_ops.c
index 356e23a3080..7de2195a4fa 100644
--- a/src/bin/pg_rewind/file_ops.c
+++ b/src/bin/pg_rewind/file_ops.c
@@ -327,7 +327,7 @@ slurpFile(const char *datadir, const char *path, size_t *filesize)
 				 fullpath);
 
 	if (fstat(fd, &statbuf) < 0)
-		pg_fatal("could not open file \"%s\" for reading: %m",
+		pg_fatal("could not stat file \"%s\" for reading: %m",
 				 fullpath);
 
 	len = statbuf.st_size;