diff --git a/lib/puppet/face/parser.rb b/lib/puppet/face/parser.rb
index a3835bfa0..1417971f5 100644
--- a/lib/puppet/face/parser.rb
+++ b/lib/puppet/face/parser.rb
@@ -1,68 +1,73 @@
 require 'puppet/face'
 require 'puppet/parser'
 
 Puppet::Face.define(:parser, '0.0.1') do
   copyright "Puppet Labs", 2011
   license   "Apache 2 license; see COPYING"
 
   summary "Interact directly with the parser."
 
   action :validate do
     summary "Validate the syntax of one or more Puppet manifests."
     arguments "[<manifest>] [<manifest> ...]"
     returns "Nothing, or the first syntax error encountered."
     description <<-'EOT'
       This action validates Puppet DSL syntax without compiling a catalog or
       syncing any resources. If no manifest files are provided, it will
       validate the default site manifest.
+
+      When validating with --parser current, the validation stops after the first
+      encountered issue.
+
+      When validating with --parser future, multiple issues per file are reported up
+      to the settings of max_error, and max_warnings. The processing stops
+      after having reported issues for the first encountered file with errors.
     EOT
     examples <<-'EOT'
       Validate the default site manifest at /etc/puppet/manifests/site.pp:
 
       $ puppet parser validate
 
       Validate two arbitrary manifest files:
 
       $ puppet parser validate init.pp vhost.pp
 
       Validate from STDIN:
 
       $ cat init.pp | puppet parser validate
     EOT
     when_invoked do |*args|
       args.pop
       files = args
       if files.empty?
         if not STDIN.tty?
           Puppet[:code] = STDIN.read
           validate_manifest
         else
           manifest = Puppet.lookup(:current_environment).manifest
           files << manifest
           Puppet.notice "No manifest specified. Validating the default manifest #{manifest}"
         end
       end
       missing_files = []
       files.each do |file|
         missing_files << file if ! Puppet::FileSystem.exist?(file)
         validate_manifest(file)
       end
       raise Puppet::Error, "One or more file(s) specified did not exist:\n#{missing_files.collect {|f| " " * 3 + f + "\n"}}" if ! missing_files.empty?
       nil
     end
   end
 
   # @api private
   def validate_manifest(manifest = nil)
-    configured_environment = Puppet.lookup(:environments).get(Puppet[:environment])
-    validation_environment = manifest ?
-      configured_environment.override_with(:manifest => manifest) :
-      configured_environment
+    env = Puppet.lookup(:current_environment)
+    validation_environment = manifest ? env.override_with(:manifest => manifest) : env
 
     validation_environment.known_resource_types.clear
 
   rescue => detail
     Puppet.log_exception(detail)
     exit(1)
   end
 end