diff --git a/travis/sleep_loop.sh b/travis/sleep_loop.sh
index 77bff456f4..1448ca6e67 100755
--- a/travis/sleep_loop.sh
+++ b/travis/sleep_loop.sh
@@ -1,17 +1,27 @@
 #!/bin/bash
+rm -f make.log
 echo "starting sleep_loop.sh for command: " ${@}
 "${@}" >& make.log &
 pid=$!
 echo "sleep_loop got pid" $pid
-while :
-do
-    sleep 60s
-    if kill -0 "$pid" 2>/dev/null; then
-	echo ' ==== ' `date` ' ==== '
-	tail -1 make.log
-    elif wait "$pid"; then
-	break          # exit loop.
-    fi
-done
+ps -p "$pid" > /dev/null
+
+if  [[ "${?}" -ne 0 ]];
+then
+    echo ' job stopped ' "${?}"
+    exit 1
+else
+    while :
+    do
+        if kill -0 "$pid" 2>/dev/null; then
+            echo ' ==== ' `date` ' ==== '
+            tail -1 make.log
+        elif wait "$pid"; then
+            break          # exit loop.
+        fi
+        sleep 60s
+    done
+    exit 0
+fi
 echo 'exited loop '
-exit 0
+tail -1 make.log