diff -r faab25d520dd -r 721e468c10f3 bl/spawn.c
--- a/bl/spawn.c	Fri Jan 27 16:18:02 2012 +0000
+++ b/bl/spawn.c	Fri Jan 27 21:40:35 2012 +0000
@@ -7,26 +7,22 @@
 
 #define SPAWN_BUFSIZE	128
 
-gboolean spawn_sync(char **argv,char **standard_output,int *exit_status)
+gboolean spawn_sync(char **argv,char **standard_output,int *exit_status,
+  GError **error)
 {
 /* Don't use g_spawn_sync on WIN32 for now to avoid needing the helper */
 #ifndef WIN32
-    char *standard_error;
-    GError *error=NULL;
+    char *standard_error=NULL;
     gboolean retval;
     GSpawnFlags flags=G_SPAWN_SEARCH_PATH;
     if (!standard_output)
 	flags=G_SPAWN_STDOUT_TO_DEV_NULL;
     retval=g_spawn_sync(NULL,argv,NULL,flags,NULL,NULL,standard_output,
-      &standard_error,exit_status,&error);
-    fputs(standard_error,stderr);
+      &standard_error,exit_status,error);
+    if (standard_error)
+	fputs(standard_error,stderr);
     g_free(standard_error);
-    if (!retval)
-    {
-	fprintf(stderr,"%s\n",error->message);
-	g_error_free(error);
-    }
-    else if (exit_status)
+    if (retval && exit_status)
 	*exit_status=WEXITSTATUS(*exit_status);
     return retval;
 #else
@@ -45,7 +41,8 @@
     g_string_free(command_line,TRUE);
     if (!fp)
     {
-	perror(command_line->str);
+	g_set_error(error,G_FILE_ERROR,g_file_error_from_errno(errno),
+	  "%s: %s",command_line->str,g_strerror(errno));
 	return FALSE;
     }
     string=g_string_new(NULL);
@@ -56,7 +53,8 @@
 	n=fread(string->str+len,1,SPAWN_BUFSIZE,fp);
 	if (n<0)
 	{
-	    perror("fread");
+	    g_set_error(error,G_FILE_ERROR,g_file_error_from_errno(errno),
+	      "Error reading from bookloupe: %s",g_strerror(errno));
 	    (void)pclose(fp);
 	    g_string_free(string,TRUE);
 	    return FALSE;
@@ -66,7 +64,8 @@
     r=pclose(fp);
     if (r<0)
     {
-	perror("pclose");
+	g_set_error(error,G_FILE_ERROR,g_file_error_from_errno(errno),
+	  "Error reading from bookloupe: %s",g_strerror(errno));
 	g_string_free(string,TRUE);
 	return FALSE;
     }