diff --git a/bin/compile b/bin/compile
index 8b1d66c43..c4a6b1105 100755
--- a/bin/compile
+++ b/bin/compile
@@ -8,5 +8,10 @@ use Composer\Compiler;
 error_reporting(-1);
 ini_set('display_errors', 1);
 
-$compiler = new Compiler();
-$compiler->compile();
+try {
+    $compiler = new Compiler();
+    $compiler->compile();
+} catch (\Exception $e) {
+    echo 'Failed to compile phar: ['.get_class($e).'] '.$e->getMessage().' at '.$e->getFile().':'.$e->getLine();
+    exit(1);
+}
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/AllFunctionalTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/AllFunctionalTest.php
index 1bd1ed6b9..83f530f75 100644
--- a/tests/Composer/Test/AllFunctionalTest.php
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/AllFunctionalTest.php
@@ -58,7 +58,9 @@ class AllFunctionalTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
         $proc = new Process('php '.escapeshellarg(__DIR__.'/../../../bin/compile'));
         $exitcode = $proc->run();
 
-        $this->assertSame(0, $exitcode);
+        if ($exitcode !== 0 || trim($proc->getOutput())) {
+            $this->fail($proc->getOutput());
+        }
         $this->assertTrue(file_exists(self::$pharPath));
     }