Returning a variable or a return code from a function

Let assume that we have a main() function in which we call a createDirectory() function.
In Python for instance, the code would be:

def main():
    # Do some stuff
    createDirectory(myPath)
    # Do some more stuff

To re-use our created directory, I can see at least two ways:

• either the createDirectory() function returns 0 in case of success, 1 if it fails to create the directory.
  If the operation succeeds, we know that we can use myPath directly later.
• or it returns the path to the directory in case of success and None if it fails.

My questions are:

1. are there any specific names for those two styles: returning a return code (fail, success, etc.) or returning an actual useful value (the path to our created directory in my example)?
2. Are there any clear benefits choosing one or the other style?
   I usually return meaningful and useful values rather than return codes but I would be interested in knowing why people use the other style.