diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/brewkit.rb b/Library/Homebrew/brewkit.rb
index a51c080f5e..a0c4d9a124 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/brewkit.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/brewkit.rb
@@ -178,32 +178,30 @@ public
   # yields self with current working directory set to the uncompressed tarball
   def brew
     ohai "Downloading #{@url}"
-
     Dir.chdir appsupport do
-      tgz=Pathname.new(fetch()).realpath
-      md5=`md5 -q "#{tgz}"`.strip
-      raise "MD5 mismatch: #{md5}" unless @md5 and md5 == @md5.downcase
-
-      # we make an additional subdirectory so know exactly what we are
-      # recursively deleting later
-      # we use mktemp rather than appsupport/blah because some build scripts
-      # can't handle being built in a directory with spaces in it :P
-      tmp=nil
+      tmp=tgz=nil
       begin
+        tgz=Pathname.new(fetch()).realpath
+        md5=`md5 -q "#{tgz}"`.strip
+        raise "MD5 mismatch: #{md5}" unless @md5 and md5 == @md5.downcase
+
+        # we make an additional subdirectory so know exactly what we are
+        # recursively deleting later
+        # we use mktemp rather than appsupport/blah because some build scripts
+        # can't handle being built in a directory with spaces in it :P
         tmp=`mktemp -dt #{File.basename @url}`.strip
         Dir.chdir tmp do
           Dir.chdir uncompress(tgz) do
             yield self
           end
         end
-      rescue => e
-        if e.kind_of? Interrupt and ARGV.include? '--debug'
+      rescue Interrupt, RuntimeError
+        if ARGV.include? '--debug'
           # debug mode allows the packager to intercept a failed build and
           # investigate the problems
           puts "Rescued build at: #{tmp}"
           exit! 1
         else
-          FileUtils.rm_rf prefix
           raise
         end
       ensure
diff --git a/bin/brew b/bin/brew
index 73d8faf2fe..f6ef1c3929 100755
--- a/bin/brew
+++ b/bin/brew
@@ -212,20 +212,28 @@ begin
       shift_formulae_from_ARGV.each do |name|
         beginning = Time.now
         o=__obj(name)
-        raise "#{o.prefix} already exists!" if o.prefix.exist?
-        o.prefix.mkpath
-        o.brew { o.install }
-        ohai 'Finishing up'
-        #TODO copy changelog or CHANGES file to pkg root,
-        #TODO maybe README, etc. to versioned root
-        o.clean
-        ln name
-        if o.caveats
-          ohai "Caveats"
-          puts o.caveats
-          ohai "Summary"
+        begin
+          raise "#{o.prefix} already exists!" if o.prefix.exist?
+          o.prefix.mkpath
+          o.brew do
+            o.install
+            ['README','ChangeLog','COPYING','AUTHORS'].each do |file|
+              FileUtils.cp file, o.prefix if File.file? file
+            end
+          end
+          ohai 'Finishing up'
+          o.clean
+          ln name
+          if o.caveats
+            ohai "Caveats"
+            puts o.caveats
+            ohai "Summary"
+          end
+          puts "#{o.prefix}: "+abv(name)+", built in #{Time.now - beginning} seconds"
+        rescue Exception
+          FileUtils.rm_rf o.prefix
+          raise
         end
-        puts "#{o.prefix}: "+abv(name)+", built in #{Time.now - beginning} seconds"
       end
     when 'ln'
       n=0