diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/global.rb b/Library/Homebrew/global.rb
index ce79da2ec5..92513294fa 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/global.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/global.rb
@@ -61,11 +61,23 @@ HOMEBREW_USER_AGENT = "Homebrew #{HOMEBREW_VERSION} (Ruby #{RUBY_VERSION}-#{RUBY
 
 
 class ExecutionError <RuntimeError
-  attr :status
+  attr :exit_status
 
-  def initialize cmd, args=[], status=nil
-    super "Failure while executing: #{cmd} #{args*' '}"
-    @status = status
+  def initialize cmd, args = [], es = nil
+    super "Failure while executing: #{cmd} #{pretty(args)*' '}"
+    @exit_status = es.exitstatus rescue 1
+  end
+
+  private
+
+  def pretty args
+    args.collect do |arg|
+      if arg.include? ' '
+        "'#{ arg.gsub "'", "\\'" }'"
+      else
+        arg
+      end
+    end
   end
 end
 
diff --git a/bin/brew b/bin/brew
index b721073b6d..5fdac2f85b 100755
--- a/bin/brew
+++ b/bin/brew
@@ -331,7 +331,7 @@ rescue BuildError => e
   puts "http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/blob/master/Library/Formula/#{formula_name}.rb#L#{$2}"
   ohai "Environment"
   dump_config
-  puts "Exit status: #{e.status.exitstatus}"
+  puts "Exit status: #{e.exit_status}"
   onoe e
   puts PLEASE_REPORT_BUG
   # this feature can be slow (depends on network conditions and if github is up)