diff --git a/scripts/create-core-package.sh b/scripts/create-core-package.sh
index f352d87..6426114 100755
--- a/scripts/create-core-package.sh
+++ b/scripts/create-core-package.sh
@@ -106,6 +106,40 @@ for path in ${client_paths[@]+"${client_paths[@]}"}; do
 	mv "$core_root/$path" "$client_root/$path"
 done
 
+# Which end of a compression pipeline actually broke.
+#
+# Under pipefail a failing status surfaces, but the text does not: whichever
+# element notices first is the one that speaks, and that is never the one that
+# died. When xz goes, bsdtar reports "Write error: Broken pipe" against
+# whatever file it happened to be reading when its output closed -- and xz
+# says nothing at all if the kernel killed it for memory, which is what -9
+# over the core payload invites. So name every element that failed, and how.
+report_pipeline() {
+	local description=$1 name status index=0 failed=0
+	shift
+	local -a names=()
+	while [[ $1 != -- ]]; do
+		names+=("$1")
+		shift
+	done
+	shift
+	for status in "$@"; do
+		name=${names[index]:-element $((index + 1))}
+		index=$((index + 1))
+		((status == 0)) && continue
+		# The last failing element's status, which is what pipefail would
+		# have surfaced: this says more than that, it does not say less.
+		failed=$status
+		if ((status > 128)); then
+			printf '%s: %s killed by signal %d\n' \
+				"$description" "$name" "$((status - 128))" >&2
+		else
+			printf '%s: %s exited %d\n' "$description" "$name" "$status" >&2
+		fi
+	done
+	return "$failed"
+}
+
 set_tree_mtime() {
 	local root=$1 timestamp
 	if touch -h -d "@$source_date_epoch" "$root/.PKGINFO" 2>/dev/null; then
@@ -171,22 +205,32 @@ EOF
 	set_tree_mtime "$root"
 	(
 		cd "$root"
+		set +e
 		list_package_files .MTREE | LC_ALL=C sort -z |
 			COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 LANG=C bsdtar -cnf - --format=mtree \
 				--no-acls --no-fflags --no-mac-metadata --no-xattrs \
 				--options='!all,use-set,type,uid,gid,mode,time,size,sha256,link' \
 				--uid 0 --gid 0 --null -T - |
 			gzip -c -f -n > .MTREE
+		statuses=(${PIPESTATUS[@]+"${PIPESTATUS[@]}"})
+		set -e
+		report_pipeline "writing .MTREE" \
+			list_package_files sort bsdtar gzip -- ${statuses[@]+"${statuses[@]}"}
 	)
 	set_tree_mtime "$root"
 
 	(
 		cd "$root"
+		set +e
 		list_package_files | LC_ALL=C sort -z |
 			COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 LANG=C bsdtar -cnf - \
 				--no-acls --no-fflags --no-mac-metadata --no-xattrs \
 				--uid 0 --gid 0 --uname root --gname root --null -T - |
 			xz -c -z -9 > "$path"
+		statuses=(${PIPESTATUS[@]+"${PIPESTATUS[@]}"})
+		set -e
+		report_pipeline "packaging ${path##*/}" \
+			list_package_files sort bsdtar xz -- ${statuses[@]+"${statuses[@]}"}
 	)
 
 	"$script_directory/validate-core-package.sh" "$path"
diff --git a/tests/ci/test-pipeline-report.sh b/tests/ci/test-pipeline-report.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..16accc3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/ci/test-pipeline-report.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# When a compression pipeline breaks, say which end broke.
+#
+# Under pipefail the failing status surfaces, but the message belongs to
+# whichever element noticed first, and that is never the one that died: when
+# xz goes, bsdtar reports "Write error: Broken pipe" against whatever file it
+# was reading, and a compressor the kernel killed for memory leaves no
+# message at all. Every log of this failure so far has named bsdtar and a
+# file that was fine.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+repository_root=$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/../.." && pwd -P)
+script="$repository_root/scripts/create-core-package.sh"
+
+failures=0
+
+# The function as the script defines it, not a copy of it here.
+report()
+{
+	bash -c '
+		set -uo pipefail
+		'"$(sed -n '/^report_pipeline()/,/^}/p' "$script")"'
+		report_pipeline "$@"
+	' report "$@" 2>&1
+}
+
+check()
+{
+	local description=$1 expected=$2
+	shift 2
+	local actual status=0
+	actual=$(report "$@") || status=$?
+	case $expected in
+	ok)
+		if ((status != 0)) || [[ -n $actual ]]; then
+			printf 'FAIL: %s\n  status %s, said: %s\n' \
+				"$description" "$status" "$actual" >&2
+			failures=$((failures + 1))
+		fi
+		;;
+	*)
+		if ((status == 0)); then
+			printf 'FAIL: %s was reported as success\n' "$description" >&2
+			failures=$((failures + 1))
+		elif [[ $actual != *"$expected"* ]]; then
+			printf 'FAIL: %s\n  expected to contain: %s\n  said: %s\n' \
+				"$description" "$expected" "$actual" >&2
+			failures=$((failures + 1))
+		fi
+		;;
+	esac
+}
+
+check "a pipeline where nothing failed says nothing" ok \
+	packaging a b c xz -- 0 0 0 0
+
+# The case this exists for. 137 is SIGKILL, which is what the kernel's
+# out-of-memory killer leaves behind, and it leaves nothing else.
+check "a compressor killed for memory is named, with its signal" \
+	"xz killed by signal 9" \
+	packaging list_package_files sort bsdtar xz -- 141 0 141 137
+
+# And the message that used to be the only one must not be the headline: the
+# upstream SIGPIPE is a consequence, so it may be reported, but the killed
+# element has to be there too.
+actual=$(report packaging list_package_files sort bsdtar xz -- 141 0 141 137 || true)
+if ! grep -q 'bsdtar killed by signal 13' <<<"$actual"; then
+	printf 'FAIL: the elements that took the SIGPIPE are not reported\n' >&2
+	failures=$((failures + 1))
+fi
+
+check "an ordinary non-zero exit is reported as an exit" \
+	"gzip exited 1" \
+	"writing .MTREE" list_package_files sort bsdtar gzip -- 0 0 0 1
+
+check "an element beyond the names given is still reported" \
+	"element 5 exited 2" \
+	packaging a b c d -- 0 0 0 0 2
+
+# The status pipefail would have surfaced is still the status: a caller that
+# was reading 137 out of this keeps reading 137.
+status=0
+report packaging list_package_files sort bsdtar xz -- 141 0 1 137 >/dev/null 2>&1 ||
+	status=$?
+if ((status != 137)); then
+	printf 'FAIL: the last failing status is not preserved\n  expected 137, got %s\n' \
+		"$status" >&2
+	failures=$((failures + 1))
+fi
+
+if ((failures)); then
+	printf '%d pipeline report check(s) failed\n' "$failures" >&2
+	exit 1
+fi
+printf 'pipeline failure reporting: all checks passed\n'