diff --git a/bin/spack b/bin/spack
index b922fc5479..fb9f045f35 100755
--- a/bin/spack
+++ b/bin/spack
@@ -96,8 +96,10 @@ except SpackError, e:
     if spack.debug:
         # In debug mode, raise with a full stack trace.
         raise
+    elif e.long_message:
+        tty.die(e.message, e.long_message)
     else:
-        # Otherwise print a nice simple message.
         tty.die(e.message)
+
 except KeyboardInterrupt:
     tty.die("Got a keyboard interrupt from the user.")
diff --git a/lib/spack/llnl/util/tty/__init__.py b/lib/spack/llnl/util/tty/__init__.py
index afc4b59a63..0e5ddab5fe 100644
--- a/lib/spack/llnl/util/tty/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/spack/llnl/util/tty/__init__.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 # Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
 ##############################################################################
 import sys
+import textwrap
 from llnl.util.tty.color import *
 
 debug   = False
@@ -39,7 +40,10 @@ def info(message, *args, **kwargs):
     format = kwargs.get('format', '*b')
     cprint("@%s{==>} %s" % (format, cescape(str(message))))
     for arg in args:
-        print indent + str(arg)
+        lines = textwrap.wrap(
+            str(arg), initial_indent=indent, subsequent_indent=indent)
+        for line in lines:
+            print line
 
 
 def verbose(message, *args):
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/error.py b/lib/spack/spack/error.py
index b593ff9fc3..47fb858f3f 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/error.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/error.py
@@ -27,8 +27,9 @@ class SpackError(Exception):
     """This is the superclass for all Spack errors.
        Subclasses can be found in the modules they have to do with.
     """
-    def __init__(self, message):
+    def __init__(self, message, long_message=None):
         super(SpackError, self).__init__(message)
+        self.long_message = long_message
 
 
 class UnsupportedPlatformError(SpackError):
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/stage.py b/lib/spack/spack/stage.py
index fe99c0ad8a..df2fe83dac 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/stage.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/stage.py
@@ -215,17 +215,27 @@ def chdir(self):
 
 
     def fetch_from_url(self, url):
-        try:
-            # Run curl but grab the mime type from the http headers
-            headers = spack.curl('-#',        # status bar
-                                 '-O',        # save file to disk
-                                 '-D', '-',   # print out HTML headers
-                                 '-L', url, return_output=True)
-        except:
+        # Run curl but grab the mime type from the http headers
+        headers = spack.curl('-#',        # status bar
+                             '-O',        # save file to disk
+                             '-D', '-',   # print out HTML headers
+                             '-L', url,
+                             return_output=True, fail_on_error=False)
+
+        if spack.curl.returncode != 0:
             # clean up archive on failure.
             if self.archive_file:
                 os.remove(self.archive_file)
-            raise
+
+            if spack.curl.returncode == 60:
+                # This is a certificate error.  Suggest spack -k
+                raise FailedDownloadError(
+                    url,
+                    "Curl was unable to fetch due to invalid certificate. "
+                    "This is either an attack, or your cluster's SSL configuration "
+                    "is bad.  If you believe your SSL configuration is bad, you "
+                    "can try running spack -k, which will not check SSL certificates."
+                    "Use this at your own risk.")
 
         # Check if we somehow got an HTML file rather than the archive we
         # asked for.  We only look at the last content type, to handle
@@ -358,7 +368,7 @@ def find_tmp_root():
 
 class FailedDownloadError(serr.SpackError):
     """Raised wen a download fails."""
-    def __init__(self, url):
+    def __init__(self, url, msg=""):
         super(FailedDownloadError, self).__init__(
-            "Failed to fetch file from URL: " + url)
+            "Failed to fetch file from URL: %s" % url, msg)
         self.url = url
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/util/executable.py b/lib/spack/spack/util/executable.py
index ac329445f7..845d1470e7 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/util/executable.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/util/executable.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ class Executable(object):
     """Class representing a program that can be run on the command line."""
     def __init__(self, name):
         self.exe = name.split(' ')
-
+        self.returncode = None
 
     def add_default_arg(self, arg):
         self.exe.append(arg)
@@ -68,6 +68,8 @@ def __call__(self, *args, **kwargs):
                 stderr=sys.stderr,
                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE if return_output else sys.stdout)
             out, err = proc.communicate()
+            self.returncode = proc.returncode
+
             if fail_on_error and proc.returncode != 0:
                 raise SpackError("command '%s' returned error code %d"
                                  % (" ".join(cmd), proc.returncode))