diff --git a/src/core/appdir_root_setup.cpp b/src/core/appdir_root_setup.cpp
index d2ce75c..39b2e46 100644
--- a/src/core/appdir_root_setup.cpp
+++ b/src/core/appdir_root_setup.cpp
@@ -178,6 +178,9 @@ namespace linuxdeploy {
                     << std::endl
                     << "# autogenerated by linuxdeploy" << std::endl
                     << std::endl
+                    << "# make sure errors in sourced scripts will cause this script to stop" << std::endl
+                    << "set -e" << std::endl
+                    << std::endl
                     << "this_dir=$(readlink -f $(dirname \"$0\"))" << std::endl
                     << std::endl;