diff --git a/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/parser/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/AbstractIndexerTask.java b/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/parser/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/AbstractIndexerTask.java
index 3b357eb1561..039e6b3cc66 100644
--- a/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/parser/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/AbstractIndexerTask.java
+++ b/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/parser/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/AbstractIndexerTask.java
@@ -1137,6 +1137,9 @@ public abstract class AbstractIndexerTask extends PDOMWriter {
 			s= createStatus(getMessage(MessageKind.errorWhileParsing, file), e);
 		}
 		logError(s);
+		if (fShowProblems) {
+			reportException(e);
+		}
 		if (++fStatistics.fErrorCount > MAX_ERRORS) {
 			throw new CoreException(createStatus(getMessage(MessageKind.tooManyIndexProblems)));
 		}
diff --git a/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/parser/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/PDOMWriter.java b/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/parser/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/PDOMWriter.java
index 6da9134dc48..6226751bccd 100644
--- a/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/parser/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/PDOMWriter.java
+++ b/core/org.eclipse.cdt.core/parser/org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/PDOMWriter.java
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ import org.eclipse.core.runtime.MultiStatus;
 import org.eclipse.core.runtime.Status;
 import org.eclipse.osgi.util.NLS;
 
+import java.io.PrintWriter;
+import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.HashSet;
@@ -191,7 +193,7 @@ abstract public class PDOMWriter implements IPDOMASTProcessor {
 		}
 	}
 
-	private boolean fShowProblems;
+	protected boolean fShowProblems;
 	protected boolean fShowInclusionProblems;
 	private boolean fShowScannerProblems;
 	private boolean fShowSyntaxProblems;
@@ -663,6 +665,14 @@ abstract public class PDOMWriter implements IPDOMASTProcessor {
 		String msg= "Indexer: " + problem.getMessageWithLocation(); //$NON-NLS-1$
 		trace(msg);
 	}
+	
+	protected void reportException(Throwable th) {
+		StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
+		PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(sw);
+		th.printStackTrace(pw);
+		String msg= "Indexer: exception: " + sw.toString();  //$NON-NLS-1$
+		trace(msg);
+	}
 
 	protected void trace(String message) {
 		System.out.println(message);