diff --git a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/java.html b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/java.html
index 2f68b6158..860a6e0f6 100644
--- a/docs/manual/CoreTasks/java.html
+++ b/docs/manual/CoreTasks/java.html
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ JVM.
   <tr>
     <td valign="top">failonerror</td>
     <td valign="top">Stop the buildprocess if the command exits with a
-      returncode other than 0. Default is "false"</td>
+      returncode other than 0. Default is "false"(see <a href="#failonerror">note</a>)</td>
     <td align="center" valign="top">No</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
@@ -220,6 +220,11 @@ see <a href="../CoreTypes/permissions.html">permissions</a></p>
 <p>When the permission RuntimePermission exitVM has not been granted (or has
 been revoked) the System.exit() call will be intercepted 
 and treated like indicated in <i>failonerror</i>.</p>
+<p><a name="failonerror"/>
+If you specify <code>failonerror=&quot;true&quot;</code> and you do not specify permissions,
+a set of default permissions will be added to your java invocation making sure that
+a non zero return code will lead to a <code>BuildException</code>.
+</p>
 
 <p>Settings will be ignored if fork is enabled.</p>
 
diff --git a/src/etc/testcases/taskdefs/java.xml b/src/etc/testcases/taskdefs/java.xml
index 768974209..363dbeb81 100644
--- a/src/etc/testcases/taskdefs/java.xml
+++ b/src/etc/testcases/taskdefs/java.xml
@@ -139,7 +139,23 @@
     <echo message="exitcode = ${exitcode}"/>
   </target>
 
+    <target name="testRunFailWithFailOnError">
+      <java classname="${app}"
+        classpath="${tests-classpath.value}"
+        failonerror="true"
+        >
+        <arg value="2"/>
+      </java>
+    </target>
 
+    <target name="testRunSuccessWithFailOnError">
+      <java classname="${app}"
+        classpath="${tests-classpath.value}"
+        failonerror="true"
+        >
+        <arg value="0"/>
+      </java>
+    </target>
 
   <target name="testSpawn">
     <java classname="${spawnapp}" fork="true" spawn="true" classpath="${tests-classpath.value}">
diff --git a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Java.java b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Java.java
index bc1e5786b..25e45c5ea 100644
--- a/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Java.java
+++ b/src/main/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/Java.java
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ public class Java extends Task {
     private Long timeout = null;
     private Redirector redirector = new Redirector(this);
     private String resultProperty;
-    private Permissions perm;
+    private Permissions perm = null;
     
     private boolean spawn = false;
     private boolean incompatibleWithSpawn = false;
@@ -108,6 +108,7 @@ public class Java extends Task {
      */
     public void execute() throws BuildException {
         File savedDir = dir;
+        Permissions savedPermissions = perm;
 
         int err = -1;
         try {
@@ -122,6 +123,7 @@ public class Java extends Task {
             maybeSetResultPropertyValue(err);
         } finally {
             dir = savedDir;
+            perm = savedPermissions;
         }
     }
 
@@ -179,6 +181,11 @@ public class Java extends Task {
                     Project.MSG_WARN);
             }
 
+            if (perm == null && failOnError == true) {
+                perm = new Permissions();
+                log("running " + this.cmdl.getClassname()
+                    + " with default permissions (exit forbidden)", Project.MSG_VERBOSE);
+            }
             log("Running in same VM " + cmdl.describeJavaCommand(),
                 Project.MSG_VERBOSE);
         }
diff --git a/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/JavaTest.java b/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/JavaTest.java
index d7d75e36d..9bf28c5a5 100644
--- a/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/JavaTest.java
+++ b/src/testcases/org/apache/tools/ant/taskdefs/JavaTest.java
@@ -196,6 +196,15 @@ public class JavaTest extends BuildFileTest {
          assertEquals("-1",project.getProperty("exitcode"));
      }
 
+    public void testRunFailWithFailOnError() {
+        expectBuildExceptionContaining("testRunFailWithFailOnError",
+            "non zero return code",
+            "Java returned:");
+    }
+
+    public void testRunSuccessWithFailOnError() {
+        executeTarget("testRunSuccessWithFailOnError");
+    }
     public void testSpawn() {
         FileUtils fileutils  = FileUtils.newFileUtils();
         File logFile = fileutils.createTempFile("spawn","log", project.getBaseDir());