diff --git a/scripts/public-db-copy b/scripts/public-db-copy
index 3e523a25ce..6cf9dbbe14 100755
--- a/scripts/public-db-copy
+++ b/scripts/public-db-copy
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@
 # Only the most recent dump is published
 #
 
+# We need to set -e so that `chronic` will make the right decision about alerting
+# us to any failures.
+set -e
+
 # This changes really often ;)
 bkup_domain=rdu3.fedoraproject.org