diff --git a/scripts/travis/docs_compile.sh b/scripts/travis/docs_compile.sh
index 8a5acc14e..e065902fe 100644
--- a/scripts/travis/docs_compile.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis/docs_compile.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-cd docs/ && make html
+set -ev
+
+cd docs/
+make html
diff --git a/scripts/travis/docs_setup.sh b/scripts/travis/docs_setup.sh
index 0b7e24e04..d766b5520 100644
--- a/scripts/travis/docs_setup.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis/docs_setup.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
-#!//bin/sh
+#!/bin/sh
+set -ev
+
 pip install --upgrade pip setuptools
 pip install Sphinx sphinx-rtd-theme
diff --git a/scripts/travis/linux_compile.sh b/scripts/travis/linux_compile.sh
index 5d0c01268..b445b0712 100644
--- a/scripts/travis/linux_compile.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis/linux_compile.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 #!/bin/sh
+
+# ignore "error" codes in the env script below
+set +e
+
 . /opt/qt56/bin/qt56-env.sh 
-mkdir build && cd build && cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug .. && make
+
+set -e
+
+mkdir build
+cd build
+cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ..
+make
diff --git a/scripts/travis/linux_setup.sh b/scripts/travis/linux_setup.sh
index beb84b928..3183fd17a 100644
--- a/scripts/travis/linux_setup.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis/linux_setup.sh
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 #!/bin/sh
+set -ev
+
 sudo add-apt-repository -y 'ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test'
 sudo add-apt-repository -y 'ppa:beineri/opt-qt562-trusty'
 sudo add-apt-repository -y 'deb http://apt.llvm.org/precise/ llvm-toolchain-precise-3.8 main'
 wget -O - http://apt.llvm.org/llvm-snapshot.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
 sudo apt-get update -qq 
 sudo apt-get install --allow-unauthenticated -y -qq libx11-dev mesa-common-dev libgl1-mesa-dev qt56base qt56x11extras libxcb-keysyms1-dev gdb clang-format-3.8
+
 clang-format-3.8 -i -style=file $(find pdblocate/ qrenderdoc/ renderdoc/ renderdoccmd/ renderdocshim/ -type f -regex '.*\(/3rdparty/\|/official/\|resource.h\).*' -prune -o -regex '.*\.\(c\|cpp\|h\)$' -print)
diff --git a/scripts/travis/osx_compile.sh b/scripts/travis/osx_compile.sh
index 14cffebef..987310cb9 100644
--- a/scripts/travis/osx_compile.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis/osx_compile.sh
@@ -1,2 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-mkdir build && cd build && cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug .. && make
+
+mkdir build
+cd build
+cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ..
+make
diff --git a/scripts/travis/osx_setup.sh b/scripts/travis/osx_setup.sh
index ad4dc677e..05011ec7f 100644
--- a/scripts/travis/osx_setup.sh
+++ b/scripts/travis/osx_setup.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 #!/bin/sh
+
 brew install qt5
 brew link qt5 --force