diff --git a/bin/cdist-config b/bin/cdist-config
index 8542d23f..9e0894f7 100755
--- a/bin/cdist-config
+++ b/bin/cdist-config
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ __cdist_debug_echo()
 
 __cdist_exit_err()
 {
-   echo "$@"
+   echo "$@" >&2
    exit 1
 }
 
diff --git a/bin/cdist-object-codegen b/bin/cdist-object-codegen
index 5ac49f0a..86bdb7c3 100755
--- a/bin/cdist-object-codegen
+++ b/bin/cdist-object-codegen
@@ -19,12 +19,11 @@
 #
 #
 # Generate code from one object (object must be relative path!)
+# WARNING: OUTPUT ON STDOUT, ERRORS NEED TO BE ON STDERR!
 #
 
 . cdist-config
-
 [ $# -eq 3 ] || __cdist_usage "<target host>" "<object_base_dir>" "<object>"
-
 set -u
 
 export __cdist_target_host="$1"; shift
diff --git a/conf/types/__file/gencode b/conf/types/__file/gencode
index 904a871f..0137064f 100755
--- a/conf/types/__file/gencode
+++ b/conf/types/__file/gencode
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 #
 
 . cdist-config
+set -e
 
 type="$(cat type)"
 mode="$(cat mode)"