diff --git a/octave/install.sh b/octave/install.sh
index cb73fc4..a7b9e36 100644
--- a/octave/install.sh
+++ b/octave/install.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 
+# exit if a command fails
+set -e
+
 # install octave 3.6.2
 apt-get update && apt-get install -y octave
 
diff --git a/opencv/install.sh b/opencv/install.sh
index 1d6a5f9..8a8e4c3 100644
--- a/opencv/install.sh
+++ b/opencv/install.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 
+# exit if a command fails
+set -e
+
 opencv_version="3.0.0-beta"
 opencv_deps=(libopencv-dev yasm libtiff4-dev libjpeg-dev libjasper-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev libdc1394-22-dev libxine-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libv4l-dev python-dev python-numpy libtbb-dev libqt4-dev libgtk2.0-dev libfaac-dev libmp3lame-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libxvidcore-dev x264 v4l-utils ffmpeg pkg-config)
 install_deps=(curl build-essential checkinstall cmake)
diff --git a/rust/install.sh b/rust/install.sh
index cb7e0ff..4cd4302 100644
--- a/rust/install.sh
+++ b/rust/install.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 
+# exit if a command fails
+set -e
+
 triple=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
 
 # install curl (needed to install rust)