diff --git a/Doc/library/py_compile.rst b/Doc/library/py_compile.rst
index de9a80e..77ed8cf 100644
--- a/Doc/library/py_compile.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/py_compile.rst
@@ -42,7 +42,12 @@
    structure to locate source files; it only compiles files named explicitly.
 
 When this module is run as a script, the :func:`main` is used to compile all the
-files named on the command line.
+files named on the command line.  The exit status is nonzero if one of the files
+could not be compiled.
+
+.. versionchanged:: 2.6
+
+   Added the nonzero exit status.
 
 
 .. seealso::
diff --git a/Lib/py_compile.py b/Lib/py_compile.py
index 1cb41f1..89e80f8 100644
--- a/Lib/py_compile.py
+++ b/Lib/py_compile.py
@@ -154,11 +154,15 @@
     """
     if args is None:
         args = sys.argv[1:]
+    rv = 0
     for filename in args:
         try:
             compile(filename, doraise=True)
-        except PyCompileError,err:
+        except PyCompileError, err:
+            # return value to indicate at least one failure
+            rv = 1
             sys.stderr.write(err.msg)
+    return rv
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    main()
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index 15f7f10..42b95e8 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@
 Library
 -------
 
+- Issue #2225: py_compile, when executed as a script, now returns a non-
+  zero status code if not all files could be compiled successfully.
+
 - Bug #1725737: In distutil's sdist, exclude RCS, CVS etc. also in the
   root directory, and also exclude .hg, .git, .bzr, and _darcs.