diff --git a/src/run-mmpol.sh b/src/run-mmpol.sh
index 3bfa26d0da0e7784303158a8a12d981f0d361f29..7eaed0d9378821f8672fc7d545272742ec318049 100755
--- a/src/run-mmpol.sh
+++ b/src/run-mmpol.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
+set -euxo pipefail
+
 # run an mmapply policy across the cluster via slurm
 
 # gather info to map mmapplypolicy to runtime configuration
@@ -35,14 +37,6 @@ echo $cmd
 # run policy command
 $cmd
 
-rcode=$?
-
-if [ $rcode -ne 0 ]
-then
-  echo error: mmapplypoicy failed: code $rcode
-  exit $rcode
-fi
-
 # tag output file with run metadata
 outfile=`ls -t $tmpglobal | head -1`
 if [[ "$outfile" != "" ]]