diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 022a95efd..c0ebf2305 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,66 +1,71 @@
 # Rakefile for Puppet -*- ruby -*-
 
 # We need access to the Puppet.version method
 $LOAD_PATH.unshift(File.expand_path("lib"))
 require 'puppet/version'
 
 $LOAD_PATH << File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), 'tasks')
 
 begin
   require 'rubygems'
   require 'rubygems/package_task'
 rescue LoadError
   # Users of older versions of Rake (0.8.7 for example) will not necessarily
   # have rubygems installed, or the newer rubygems package_task for that
   # matter.
   require 'rake/packagetask'
   require 'rake/gempackagetask'
 end
 
 require 'rake'
 require 'rspec'
 require "rspec/core/rake_task"
-require 'yaml'
 
 Dir['tasks/**/*.rake'].each { |t| load t }
 Dir['ext/packaging/tasks/**/*'].sort.each { |t| load t }
 
-begin
-  @build_defaults ||= YAML.load_file('ext/build_defaults.yaml')
+build_defs_file = 'ext/build_defaults.yaml'
+if File.exist?(build_defs_file)
+  begin
+    require 'yaml'
+    @build_defaults ||= YAML.load_file(build_defs_file)
+  rescue Exception => e
+    STDERR.puts "Unable to load yaml from #{build_defs_file}:"
+    STDERR.puts e
+  end
   @packaging_url  = @build_defaults['packaging_url']
   @packaging_repo = @build_defaults['packaging_repo']
-rescue
-  STDERR.puts 'Unable to read the packaging repo info from ext/build_defaults.yaml'
-end
+  raise "Could not find packaging url in #{build_defs_file}" if @packaging_url.nil?
+  raise "Could not find packaging repo in #{build_defs_file}" if @packaging_repo.nil?
 
-namespace :package do
-  desc "Bootstrap packaging automation, e.g. clone into packaging repo"
-  task :bootstrap do
-    if File.exist?("ext/#{@packaging_repo}")
-      puts "It looks like you already have ext/#{@packaging_repo}. If you don't like it, blow it away with package:implode."
-    else
-      cd 'ext' do
-        %x{git clone #{@packaging_url}}
+  namespace :package do
+    desc "Bootstrap packaging automation, e.g. clone into packaging repo"
+    task :bootstrap do
+      if File.exist?("ext/#{@packaging_repo}")
+        puts "It looks like you already have ext/#{@packaging_repo}. If you don't like it, blow it away with package:implode."
+      else
+        cd 'ext' do
+          %x{git clone #{@packaging_url}}
+        end
       end
     end
-  end
-  desc "Remove all cloned packaging automation"
-  task :implode do
-    rm_rf "ext/#{@packaging_repo}"
+    desc "Remove all cloned packaging automation"
+    task :implode do
+      rm_rf "ext/#{@packaging_repo}"
+    end
   end
 end
 
-
 task :default do
     sh %{rake -T}
 end
 
 RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new do |t|
     t.pattern ='spec/{unit,integration}/**/*.rb'
     t.fail_on_error = true
 end
 
 desc "Run the unit tests"
 task :unit do
   Dir.chdir("test") { sh "rake" }
 end