diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index fa1d9fd83..e87bd806a 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 Release 1.2.4 (in development)
 ==============================
 
+Features added
+--------------
+
+* Exception logs now contain the last 10 messages emitted by Sphinx.
+
 
 Release 1.2.3 (released Sep 1, 2014)
 ====================================
diff --git a/sphinx/application.py b/sphinx/application.py
index 4fb9eb384..8a1c65630 100644
--- a/sphinx/application.py
+++ b/sphinx/application.py
@@ -17,17 +17,18 @@ import types
 import posixpath
 from os import path
 from cStringIO import StringIO
+from collections import deque
 
 from docutils import nodes
 from docutils.parsers.rst import convert_directive_function, \
-     directives, roles
+    directives, roles
 
 import sphinx
 from sphinx import package_dir, locale
 from sphinx.roles import XRefRole
 from sphinx.config import Config
 from sphinx.errors import SphinxError, SphinxWarning, ExtensionError, \
-     VersionRequirementError, ConfigError
+    VersionRequirementError, ConfigError
 from sphinx.domains import ObjType, BUILTIN_DOMAINS
 from sphinx.domains.std import GenericObject, Target, StandardDomain
 from sphinx.builders import BUILTIN_BUILDERS
@@ -95,6 +96,9 @@ class Sphinx(object):
 
         self._events = events.copy()
 
+        # keep last few messages for traceback
+        self.messagelog = deque(maxlen=10)
+
         # say hello to the world
         self.info(bold('Running Sphinx v%s' % sphinx.__version__))
 
@@ -241,6 +245,7 @@ class Sphinx(object):
             wfile.write('\n')
         if hasattr(wfile, 'flush'):
             wfile.flush()
+        self.messagelog.append(message)
 
     def warn(self, message, location=None, prefix='WARNING: '):
         """Emit a warning.
diff --git a/sphinx/builders/__init__.py b/sphinx/builders/__init__.py
index 44c76fafb..c02ecb53f 100644
--- a/sphinx/builders/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/builders/__init__.py
@@ -277,8 +277,8 @@ class Builder(object):
 
         # finish (write static files etc.)
         self.finish()
-        status = (self.app.statuscode == 0 and 'succeeded'
-                                           or 'finished with problems')
+        status = (self.app.statuscode == 0
+                  and 'succeeded' or 'finished with problems')
         if self.app._warncount:
             self.info(bold('build %s, %s warning%s.' %
                            (status, self.app._warncount,
@@ -387,7 +387,7 @@ class Builder(object):
             threads.append(t)
 
         # make sure all threads have finished
-        self.info(bold('waiting for workers... '))#, nonl=True)
+        self.info(bold('waiting for workers... '))
         for t in threads:
             t.join()
 
diff --git a/sphinx/util/__init__.py b/sphinx/util/__init__.py
index cf3ae3279..91b7111ca 100644
--- a/sphinx/util/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/util/__init__.py
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 import os
 import re
 import sys
-import shutil
 import fnmatch
 import tempfile
 import posixpath
@@ -30,6 +29,7 @@ import jinja2
 import sphinx
 from sphinx.errors import PycodeError
 from sphinx.util.pycompat import bytes
+from sphinx.util.console import strip_colors
 
 # import other utilities; partly for backwards compatibility, so don't
 # prune unused ones indiscriminately
@@ -176,6 +176,8 @@ _DEBUG_HEADER = '''\
 # Python version: %s
 # Docutils version: %s %s
 # Jinja2 version: %s
+# Last messages:
+%s
 # Loaded extensions:
 '''
 
@@ -184,11 +186,17 @@ def save_traceback(app):
     import platform
     exc = traceback.format_exc()
     fd, path = tempfile.mkstemp('.log', 'sphinx-err-')
+    last_msgs = ''
+    if app is not None:
+        last_msgs = '\n'.join(
+            '#   %s' % strip_colors(force_decode(s, 'utf-8')).strip()
+            for s in app.messagelog)
     os.write(fd, (_DEBUG_HEADER %
                   (sphinx.__version__,
                    platform.python_version(),
                    docutils.__version__, docutils.__version_details__,
-                   jinja2.__version__)).encode('utf-8'))
+                   jinja2.__version__,
+                   last_msgs)).encode('utf-8'))
     if app is not None:
         for extname, extmod in app._extensions.iteritems():
             os.write(fd, ('#   %s from %s\n' % (
diff --git a/sphinx/util/console.py b/sphinx/util/console.py
index c2330102d..24a22d754 100644
--- a/sphinx/util/console.py
+++ b/sphinx/util/console.py
@@ -63,6 +63,9 @@ def coloron():
 def colorize(name, text):
     return codes.get(name, '') + text + codes.get('reset', '')
 
+def strip_colors(s):
+    return re.compile('\x1b.*?m').sub('', s)
+
 def create_color_func(name):
     def inner(text):
         return colorize(name, text)