diff --git a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4 b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
index 04ce7e3b020f489d59fe103970fc989d7b351127..2fefea4de5ee644d6cc1c6cf8a3e5d8524396743 100755
--- a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
+++ b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
@@ -1440,10 +1440,13 @@ class P4Sync(Command):
                                            % (p, revision)
                                            for p in self.depotPaths])):
 
-            if info['code'] == 'error':
+            if 'code' in info and info['code'] == 'error':
                 sys.stderr.write("p4 returned an error: %s\n"
                                  % info['data'])
                 sys.exit(1)
+            if 'p4ExitCode' in info:
+                sys.stderr.write("p4 exitcode: %s\n" % info['p4ExitCode'])
+                sys.exit(1)
 
 
             change = int(info["change"])
diff --git a/t/t9800-git-p4.sh b/t/t9800-git-p4.sh
index 2d354f86d04250e48c2e9fe9358282145a8c477e..c1ea4d445caa1bd30a7c97547b635d84abfbdb9e 100755
--- a/t/t9800-git-p4.sh
+++ b/t/t9800-git-p4.sh
@@ -45,6 +45,19 @@ test_expect_success 'basic git-p4 clone' '
 	rm -rf "$git" && mkdir "$git"
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'exit when p4 fails to produce marshaled output' '
+	badp4dir="$TRASH_DIRECTORY/badp4dir" &&
+	mkdir -p "$badp4dir" &&
+	cat >"$badp4dir"/p4 <<-EOF &&
+	#!$SHELL_PATH
+	exit 1
+	EOF
+	chmod 755 "$badp4dir"/p4 &&
+	PATH="$badp4dir:$PATH" "$GITP4" clone --dest="$git" //depot >errs 2>&1 ; retval=$? &&
+	test $retval -eq 1 &&
+	test_must_fail grep -q Traceback errs
+'
+
 test_expect_success 'shutdown' '
 	pid=`pgrep -f p4d` &&
 	test -n "$pid" &&