diff --git a/src/Base/Interpreter.cpp b/src/Base/Interpreter.cpp
index dd403e022..b03b88359 100644
--- a/src/Base/Interpreter.cpp
+++ b/src/Base/Interpreter.cpp
@@ -92,13 +92,46 @@ void PyException::ReportException (void) const
 
 SystemExitException::SystemExitException()
 {
-    _sErrMsg = "System exit";
+    // Set exception message and code based upon the pthon sys.exit() code and/or message 
+    // based upon the the following sys.exit() call semantics.
+    //
+    // Invocation       |  _exitCode  |  _sErrMsg
+    // ---------------- +  ---------  +  --------
+    // sys.exit(int#)   |   int#      |   "System Exit"
+    // sys.exit(string) |   1         |   string
+    // sys.exit()       |   1         |   "System Exit"
+
+    long int errCode = 1;
+    std::string errMsg  = "System exit";
+    PyObject  *type, *value, *traceback, *code;
+
+    PyErr_Fetch(&type, &value, &traceback);
+    PyErr_NormalizeException(&type, &value, &traceback);
+
+    code = PyObject_GetAttrString(value, "code");
+    if (code != NULL && value != Py_None) {
+       Py_DECREF(value);
+       value = code;
+    }
+
+    if (PyInt_Check(value)) {
+        errCode = PyInt_AsLong(value);
+    }
+    else {
+        const char *str = PyString_AsString(value);
+        if (str)
+            errMsg = errMsg + ": " + str;
+    }
+
+    _sErrMsg  = errMsg;
+    _exitCode = errCode;
 }
 
 SystemExitException::SystemExitException(const SystemExitException &inst)
         : Exception(inst)
 {
 }
+
 
 // ---------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/src/Base/Interpreter.h b/src/Base/Interpreter.h
index 3a219e001..2b88071dd 100644
--- a/src/Base/Interpreter.h
+++ b/src/Base/Interpreter.h
@@ -87,6 +87,10 @@ public:
     SystemExitException(void);
     SystemExitException(const SystemExitException &inst);
     virtual ~SystemExitException() throw() {}
+    const long getExitCode(void) const { return _exitCode;}
+
+protected:
+    long int _exitCode;
 };
 
 /** If the application starts we release immediately the global interpreter lock
diff --git a/src/Main/MainGui.cpp b/src/Main/MainGui.cpp
index 0a681a1c5..e2139e6bd 100644
--- a/src/Main/MainGui.cpp
+++ b/src/Main/MainGui.cpp
@@ -236,8 +236,8 @@ int main( int argc, char ** argv )
         else
             App::Application::runApplication();
     }
-    catch (const Base::SystemExitException&) {
-        exit(0);
+    catch (const Base::SystemExitException& e) {
+        exit(e.getExitCode());
     }
     catch (const Base::Exception& e) {
         e.ReportException();