diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a31c483..7cbdfdd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -15,12 +15,14 @@ If you want, then you can build an up-to-date vanilla GCC as well.
 
 ### WHAT IS NOT WORKING (YET)? ###
 
-* Debug info is weak, because of the [missing](https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross/blob/master/patches/gcc-dsymutil.patch)
-      [`dsymutil`](http://www.manpagez.com/man/1/dsymutil) (shows only function names, no line numbers)
-* GCC itself [doesn't build with GCC](https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross/commit/12f5dcdde4bc1000180d25ffda229f0a13cf723d),
-      but builds fine when clang is used to build GCC
+* Debug info is weak because of the [missing](https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross/blob/master/patches/gcc-dsymutil.patch)
+      [`dsymutil`](http://www.manpagez.com/man/1/dsymutil) (debugger shows only function names).  
+  The source code of dsymutil is not publicly available, so it can't be ported to other systems.  
+  But you probably don't want debug symbols anyway if you build on a non OS X system.
+
+* GCC itself [doesn't build with GCC](https://github.com/tpoechtrager/osxcross/commit/12f5dcdde4bc1000180d25ffda229f0a13cf723d),
+      but builds fine when clang is used to build GCC.
 
-Everything else besides that should work.
 
 ### WHAT CAN I BUILD WITH IT? ###
 
diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index d7fd977..dd16e55 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -2,12 +2,7 @@
 
 pushd "${0%/*}" &>/dev/null
 
-export LC_ALL="C"
-export CC=clang
-export CXX=clang++
-
-# How many concurrent jobs should be used for compiling?
-JOBS=`tools/get_cpu_count.sh` || exit 1
+source tools/tools.sh
 
 # SDK version to use
 SDK_VERSION=10.8
@@ -24,29 +19,12 @@ LINKER_VERSION=134.9
 # Don't change this
 OSXCROSS_VERSION=0.5
 
-function require
-{
-    which $1 &>/dev/null
-    while [ $? -ne 0 ]
-    do
-        echo ""
-        read -p "Install $1 then press enter"
-        which $1 &>/dev/null
-    done
-}
-
-BASE_DIR=`pwd`
 TARBALL_DIR=$BASE_DIR/tarballs
 BUILD_DIR=$BASE_DIR/build
 TARGET_DIR=$BASE_DIR/target
 PATCH_DIR=$BASE_DIR/patches
 SDK_DIR=$TARGET_DIR/SDK
 
-JOBSSTR="jobs"
-if [ $JOBS -eq 1 ]; then
-    JOBSSTR="job"
-fi
-
 if [ -z "$OSX_VERSION_MIN" ]; then
     OSX_VERSION_MIN="default"
 fi
@@ -58,11 +36,9 @@ case $SDK_VERSION in
     10.7*) TARGET=darwin11 ;;
     10.8*) TARGET=darwin12 ;;
     10.9*) TARGET=darwin13 ;;
-    *) echo "Invalid SDK Version"; exit 1 ;;
+    *) echo "Invalid SDK Version" && exit 1 ;;
 esac
 
-set -e
-
 echo ""
 echo "Building OSXCross toolchain, Version: $OSXCROSS_VERSION"
 echo ""
@@ -98,9 +74,14 @@ set -e
 
 CLANG_TARGET_OPTION=`./oclang/check_target_option.sh`
 
-pushd $BUILD_DIR
+pushd $BUILD_DIR &>/dev/null
 
-trap 'test $? -eq 0 || rm -f $BUILD_DIR/have_cctools*' EXIT
+function remove_locks()
+{
+    rm -rf $BUILD_DIR/have_cctools*
+}
+
+source $BASE_DIR/tools/trap_exit.sh
 
 if [ "`ls $TARBALL_DIR/cctools*.tar.* | wc -l | tr -d ' '`" != "1" ]; then
     echo ""
@@ -121,7 +102,7 @@ rm -rf xar*
 tar xJfv $TARBALL_DIR/cctools*.tar.xz
 tar xzfv $TARBALL_DIR/xar*.tar.gz
 
-pushd cctools*/cctools
+pushd cctools*/cctools &>/dev/null
 patch -p0 < $PATCH_DIR/cctools-ld64-1.patch
 patch -p0 < $PATCH_DIR/cctools-ld64-2.patch
 patch -p0 < $PATCH_DIR/cctools-ld64-3.patch
@@ -133,37 +114,37 @@ echo ""
 ./configure --prefix=$TARGET_DIR --target=x86_64-apple-$TARGET
 make -j$JOBS
 make install -j$JOBS
-popd
+popd &>/dev/null
 
-pushd $TARGET_DIR/bin
+pushd $TARGET_DIR/bin &>/dev/null
 CCTOOLS=`find . -name "x86_64-apple-darwin*"`
 CCTOOLS=($CCTOOLS)
 for CCTOOL in ${CCTOOLS[@]}; do
     CCTOOL_I386=`echo "$CCTOOL" | sed 's/x86_64/i386/g'`
     ln -sf $CCTOOL $CCTOOL_I386
 done
-popd
+popd &>/dev/null
 
 fi # have cctools
 
 if [ ! -f "have_xar_$TARGET" ]; then
 if [ -n "$FORCE_XAR_BUILD" ] || [ `echo "$SDK_VERSION<=10.5" | bc -l` -eq 1 ]; then
 
-pushd xar*
+pushd xar* &>/dev/null
 set +e
 sed -i 's/-Wall/-w/g' configure
 set -e
 ./configure --prefix=$TARGET_DIR
 make -j$JOBS
 make install -j$JOBS
-popd
+popd &>/dev/null
 
 fi # SDK <= 10.5
 fi # have xar
 
 if [ ! -f "have_cctools_$TARGET" ]; then
 
-function check
+function check_cctools
 {
     [ -f "/$TARGET_DIR/bin/$1-apple-$TARGET-lipo" ] || exit 1
     [ -f "/$TARGET_DIR/bin/$1-apple-$TARGET-ld" ] || exit 1
@@ -173,8 +154,8 @@ function check
     [ -f "/$TARGET_DIR/bin/$1-apple-$TARGET-strip" ] || exit 1
 }
 
-check i386
-check x86_64
+check_cctools i386
+check_cctools x86_64
 
 touch "have_cctools_${CCTOOLS_REVHASH}_$TARGET"
 
@@ -218,14 +199,14 @@ esac
 rm -rf $SDK_DIR/MacOSX$SDK_VERSION* 2>/dev/null
 mv -f SDKs/*$SDK_VERSION* $SDK_DIR
 
-pushd $SDK_DIR/MacOSX$SDK_VERSION.sdk
+pushd $SDK_DIR/MacOSX$SDK_VERSION.sdk &>/dev/null
 set +e
 ln -s $SDK_DIR/MacOSX$SDK_VERSION.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks/Kernel.framework/Versions/A/Headers/std*.h usr/include 2>/dev/null
 $BASE_DIR/oclang/find_intrinsic_headers.sh $SDK_DIR/MacOSX$SDK_VERSION.sdk
 set -e
-popd
+popd &>/dev/null
 
-popd
+popd &>/dev/null
 
 WRAPPER=$TARGET_DIR/bin/x86_64-apple-$TARGET-oclang
 cp -f oclang/oclang $WRAPPER
@@ -233,7 +214,7 @@ cp -f oclang/oclang $WRAPPER
 WRAPPER_SCRIPT=`basename $WRAPPER`
 WRAPPER_DIR=`dirname $WRAPPER`
 
-pushd $WRAPPER_DIR
+pushd $WRAPPER_DIR &>/dev/null
 
 ln -sf $WRAPPER_SCRIPT o32-clang
 ln -sf $WRAPPER_SCRIPT o32-clang++
@@ -251,7 +232,7 @@ ln -sf $WRAPPER_SCRIPT x86_64-apple-$TARGET-clang
 ln -sf $WRAPPER_SCRIPT x86_64-apple-$TARGET-clang++
 ln -sf $WRAPPER_SCRIPT x86_64-apple-$TARGET-clang++-libc++
 
-popd
+popd &>/dev/null
 
 OSXCROSS_CONF="$TARGET_DIR/bin/osxcross-conf"
 OSXCROSS_ENV="$TARGET_DIR/bin/osxcross-env"
@@ -296,15 +277,6 @@ echo "echo \"export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:\$BDIR/../lib${LIB_PATH}"\
 
 chmod +x $OSXCROSS_CONF $OSXCROSS_ENV
 
-
-function test_compiler
-{
-    echo -ne "testing $1 ... "
-    $1 $2 -O2 -Wall -o test
-    rm test
-    echo "works"
-}
-
 export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:`cat $BUILD_DIR/cctools*/cctools/tmp/ldpath`" # libLTO.so
 
 echo ""
@@ -316,9 +288,9 @@ test_compiler o32-clang++ $BASE_DIR/oclang/test.cpp
 test_compiler o64-clang++ $BASE_DIR/oclang/test.cpp
 
 echo ""
-echo "Now add the following line"
+echo "Now add"
 echo ""
-echo "\`$OSXCROSS_ENV\`"
+echo -e "\e[32m\`$OSXCROSS_ENV\`\e[0m"
 echo ""
 echo "to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile (including the '\`')"
 echo ""
diff --git a/build_gcc.sh b/build_gcc.sh
index 08c4030..f5bae52 100755
--- a/build_gcc.sh
+++ b/build_gcc.sh
@@ -2,24 +2,13 @@
 
 pushd "${0%/*}" &>/dev/null
 
-export LC_ALL="C"
 export LIBRARY_PATH=""
 
-export CC=clang
-export CXX=clang++
+DESC=gcc
+source tools/tools.sh
 
 `tools/osxcross_conf.sh`
 
-if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
-    echo "you need to complete ./build.sh first, before you can start building gcc"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-set -e
-
-# How many concurrent jobs should be used for compiling?
-JOBS=`tools/get_cpu_count.sh`
-
 # GCC version to build
 # (<4.7 will not work properly with libc++)
 GCC_VERSION=4.8.2
@@ -27,32 +16,24 @@ GCC_VERSION=4.8.2
 # GCC mirror
 GCC_MIRROR="ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/misc/gcc/releases"
 
-function require
-{
-    which $1 &>/dev/null
-    while [ $? -ne 0 ]
-    do
-        echo ""
-        read -p "Install $1 then press enter"
-        which $1 &>/dev/null
-    done
-}
-
 set +e
 require wget
 set -e
 
-BASE_DIR=`pwd`
+pushd $OSXCROSS_BUILD_DIR &>/dev/null
 
-pushd $OSXCROSS_BUILD_DIR
+function remove_locks()
+{
+    rm -rf $OSXCROSS_BUILD_DIR/have_gcc*
+}
 
-trap 'test $? -eq 0 || rm -f $OSXCROSS_BUILD_DIR/have_gcc*' EXIT
+source $BASE_DIR/tools/trap_exit.sh
 
 if [ ! -f "have_gcc_${GCC_VERSION}_${OSXCROSS_TARGET}" ]; then
 
-pushd $OSXCROSS_TARBALL_DIR
+pushd $OSXCROSS_TARBALL_DIR &>/dev/null
 wget -c "$GCC_MIRROR/gcc-$GCC_VERSION/gcc-$GCC_VERSION.tar.bz2"
-popd
+popd &>/dev/null
 
 echo "cleaning up ..."
 rm -rf gcc* 2>/dev/null
@@ -60,7 +41,7 @@ rm -rf gcc* 2>/dev/null
 echo "extracting gcc ..."
 tar xf "$OSXCROSS_TARBALL_DIR/gcc-$GCC_VERSION.tar.bz2"
 
-pushd gcc*$GCC_VERSION*
+pushd gcc*$GCC_VERSION* &>/dev/null
 
 rm -f $OSXCROSS_TARGET_DIR/bin/*-gcc*
 rm -f $OSXCROSS_TARGET_DIR/bin/*-g++*
@@ -68,7 +49,7 @@ rm -f $OSXCROSS_TARGET_DIR/bin/*-g++*
 patch -p0 < $OSXCROSS_PATCH_DIR/gcc-dsymutil.patch
 
 mkdir -p build
-pushd build
+pushd build &>/dev/null
 
 if [ "`uname -s`" == "FreeBSD" ]; then
     export CPATH="/usr/local/include"
@@ -101,14 +82,14 @@ fi
 $MAKE -j$JOBS
 $MAKE install -j$JOBS
 
-popd #build
-popd #gcc
+popd &>/dev/null # build
+popd &>/dev/null # gcc
 
 touch "have_gcc_${GCC_VERSION}_${OSXCROSS_TARGET}"
 
-fi #have gcc
+fi # have gcc
 
-popd #build dir
+popd &>/dev/null # build dir
 
 WRAPPER=$OSXCROSS_TARGET_DIR/bin/x86_64-apple-${OSXCROSS_TARGET}-ogcc
 cp ogcc/ogcc $WRAPPER
@@ -116,7 +97,7 @@ cp ogcc/ogcc $WRAPPER
 WRAPPER_SCRIPT=`basename $WRAPPER`
 WRAPPER_DIR=`dirname $WRAPPER`
 
-pushd $WRAPPER_DIR
+pushd $WRAPPER_DIR &>/dev/null
 
 if [ ! -f i386-apple-$OSXCROSS_TARGET-base-gcc ]; then
     mv x86_64-apple-$OSXCROSS_TARGET-gcc x86_64-apple-$OSXCROSS_TARGET-base-gcc
@@ -142,15 +123,7 @@ ln -sf $WRAPPER_SCRIPT x86_64-apple-$OSXCROSS_TARGET-gcc
 ln -sf $WRAPPER_SCRIPT x86_64-apple-$OSXCROSS_TARGET-g++
 ln -sf $WRAPPER_SCRIPT x86_64-apple-$OSXCROSS_TARGET-g++-libc++
 
-popd #wrapper dir
-
-function test_compiler
-{
-    echo -ne "testing $1 ... "
-    $1 $2 -O2 -Wall -o test
-    rm test
-    echo "works"
-}
+popd &>/dev/null # wrapper dir
 
 echo ""
 
diff --git a/build_libcxx.sh b/build_libcxx.sh
index 69297ac..9696862 100755
--- a/build_libcxx.sh
+++ b/build_libcxx.sh
@@ -2,19 +2,11 @@
 
 pushd "${0%/*}" &>/dev/null
 
-export LC_ALL="C"
-
-`tools/osxcross_conf.sh`
-
-if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
-    echo "you need to complete ./build.sh first, before you can start building libc++"
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-set -e
+DESC=libc++
+source tools/tools.sh
 
 if [ `echo "${OSXCROSS_SDK_VERSION}<10.7" | bc -l` -eq 1 ]; then
-    echo "you must use the SDK from 10.7 or newer to get libc++ compiled"
+    echo "you must use the SDK from 10.7 or newer to get $DESC compiled"
     exit 1
 fi
 
@@ -24,47 +16,39 @@ JOBS=`tools/get_cpu_count.sh`
 # libc++ version to build
 LIBCXX_VERSION=3.3
 
-function require
-{
-    which $1 &>/dev/null
-    while [ $? -ne 0 ]
-    do
-        echo ""
-        read -p "Install $1 then press enter"
-        which $1 &>/dev/null
-    done
-}
-
-BASE_DIR=`pwd`
-
 set +e
 require wget
 require cmake
 set -e
 
-pushd $OSXCROSS_BUILD_DIR
+pushd $OSXCROSS_BUILD_DIR &>/dev/null
 
-trap 'test $? -eq 0 || rm -f $OSXCROSS_BUILD_DIR/have_libcxx*' EXIT
+function remove_locks()
+{
+    rm -f $OSXCROSS_BUILD_DIR/have_libcxx*
+}
+
+source $BASE_DIR/tools/trap_exit.sh
 
 if [ ! -f "have_libcxx_${LIBCXX_VERSION}_${OSXCROSS_TARGET}" ]; then
 
-pushd $OSXCROSS_TARBALL_DIR
+pushd $OSXCROSS_TARBALL_DIR &>/dev/null
 wget -c "http://llvm.org/releases/3.3/libcxx-${LIBCXX_VERSION}.src.tar.gz"
-popd
+popd &>/dev/null
 
 tar xzfv "$OSXCROSS_TARBALL_DIR/libcxx-${LIBCXX_VERSION}.src.tar.gz"
-pushd libcxx-${LIBCXX_VERSION}*
+pushd libcxx-${LIBCXX_VERSION}* &>/dev/null
 rm -rf build
 mkdir build
 
-pushd build
+pushd build &>/dev/null
 
 # remove conflicting versions
 rm -rf $OSXCROSS_SDK/usr/include/c++/v1
 rm -rf $OSXCROSS_SDK/usr/lib/libc++.dylib
 rm -rf $OSXCROSS_SDK/usr/lib/libc++.*.dylib
 
-function cmakeerror()
+function cmake_error()
 {
     echo -e "\e[1m"
     echo "It looks like CMake failed."
@@ -91,19 +75,19 @@ cmake .. \
     -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$OSXCROSS_SDK/../libcxx_$OSXCROSS_SDK_VERSION \
     -DCMAKE_AR=$OSXCROSS_CCTOOLS_PATH/x86_64-apple-$OSXCROSS_TARGET-ar \
     -DCMAKE_RANLIB=$OSXCROSS_CCTOOLS_PATH/x86_64-apple-$OSXCROSS_TARGET-ranlib \
-    -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-arch i386 -arch x86_64" || cmakeerror
+    -DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-arch i386 -arch x86_64" || cmake_error
 
 make -j$JOBS
 make install -j$JOBS
 
-popd #build
-popd #libcxx
+popd &>/dev/null # build
+popd &>/dev/null # libcxx
 
 touch "have_libcxx_${LIBCXX_VERSION}_${OSXCROSS_TARGET}"
 
-fi #have libcxx
+fi # have libcxx
 
-popd #build dir
+popd &>/dev/null # build dir
 
 function test_compiler_clang
 {
diff --git a/tools/get_cpu_count.sh b/tools/get_cpu_count.sh
index 3170d20..19307dd 100755
--- a/tools/get_cpu_count.sh
+++ b/tools/get_cpu_count.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 set -e
 
+which cc &>/dev/null || { echo "1" && exit 0; }
+
 prog="cpucount"
 
 pushd "${0%/*}" >/dev/null 2>&1
@@ -11,6 +13,6 @@ case "$(uname -s)" in
     prog="${prog}.exe" ;;
 esac
 
-test ! -f $prog && cc cpucount.c -o cpucount
+test ! -f $prog && cc cpucount.c -o cpucount &>/dev/null
 
 eval "./${prog}"
diff --git a/tools/osxcross_conf.sh b/tools/osxcross_conf.sh
index d09e93d..b8e7c1f 100755
--- a/tools/osxcross_conf.sh
+++ b/tools/osxcross_conf.sh
@@ -2,9 +2,8 @@
 
 pushd "${0%/*}" &>/dev/null
 
-OSXCROSS_CONF=`which osxcross-conf 2>/dev/null`
-test $? -eq 0 || OSXCROSS_CONF="../target/bin/osxcross-conf"
-test -f $OSXCROSS_CONF || exit 1
+OSXCROSS_CONF="../target/bin/osxcross-conf"
+test -f $OSXCROSS_CONF || { OSXCROSS_CONF=`which osxcross-conf 2>/dev/null` || exit 1; }
 
 $OSXCROSS_CONF || exit 1
 `dirname $OSXCROSS_CONF`/osxcross-env
diff --git a/tools/tools.sh b/tools/tools.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a08b68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/tools.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+BASE_DIR=`pwd`
+
+export LC_ALL="C"
+export CC=clang
+export CXX=clang++
+
+# enable debug messages
+test -n "$OCDEBUG" && set -x
+
+# how many concurrent jobs should be used for compiling?
+JOBS=`tools/get_cpu_count.sh`
+
+if [ "`basename $0`" != "build.sh" ]; then
+    `tools/osxcross_conf.sh`
+
+    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
+        echo "you need to complete ./build.sh first, before you can start building $DESC"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+fi
+
+function require
+{
+    which $1 &>/dev/null
+    while [ $? -ne 0 ]
+    do
+        echo ""
+        read -p "Please install $1 then press enter"
+        which $1 &>/dev/null
+    done
+}
+
+function test_compiler
+{
+    echo -ne "testing $1 ... "
+    $1 $2 -O2 -Wall -o test
+    rm test
+    echo "works"
+}
+
+# exit on error
+set -e
diff --git a/tools/trap_exit.sh b/tools/trap_exit.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e487d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/trap_exit.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+function _exit()
+{
+    EC=$?
+    if [ $EC -ne 0 ]; then
+        SCRIPT=`basename $0`
+        echo ""
+        echo "exiting with abnormal exit code ($EC)"
+        test -n "$OCDEBUG" || echo "run 'OCDEBUG=1 ./$SCRIPT' to enable debug messages"
+        echo "removing stale locks..."
+        remove_locks
+        echo "if it is happening the first time, then just re-run the script"
+        echo ""
+    fi
+}
+
+trap _exit EXIT
+