diff --git a/src/common.js b/src/common.js
index 950125f..fe20871 100644
--- a/src/common.js
+++ b/src/common.js
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ function error(msg, _continue) {
     state.error = '';
   state.error += state.currentCmd + ': ' + msg + '\n';
 
-  log(state.error);
+  if (msg.length > 0)
+    log(state.error);
 
   if (config.fatal)
     process.exit(1);
diff --git a/src/exec.js b/src/exec.js
index beb4e0e..7ccdbc0 100644
--- a/src/exec.js
+++ b/src/exec.js
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ function execSync(cmd, opts) {
 
   // some shell return codes are defined as errors, per http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/exitcodes.html
   if (code === 1 || code === 2 || code >= 126)  {
-      common.error('Exec returned error code' + code, true);
+      common.error('', true); // unix/shell doesn't really give an error message after non-zero exit codes
   }
   // True if successful, false if not
   var obj = {