diff --git a/global/post-tasks.d/030puppet b/global/post-tasks.d/030puppet
index af45005..561ebc4 100755
--- a/global/post-tasks.d/030puppet
+++ b/global/post-tasks.d/030puppet
@@ -1,13 +1,15 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+set -e
+
 if [ "x$COSMOS_VERBOSE" = "xy" ]; then
    args="--verbose --show_diff"
 else
    args="--logdest=syslog"
 fi
 
-if [ -f /usr/bin/puppet -a -d /etc/puppet/manifests ]; then
-   for m in `find /etc/puppet/manifests -name \*.pp`; do
+if [ -f /usr/bin/puppet ] && [ -d /etc/puppet/manifests ]; then
+   find /etc/puppet/manifests -name \*.pp | while read -r m; do
       test "x$COSMOS_VERBOSE" = "xy" && echo "$0: Applying Puppet manifest $m"
       puppet apply $args $m
    done
diff --git a/global/pre-tasks.d/015set-overlay-permissions b/global/pre-tasks.d/015set-overlay-permissions
index 373ef68..37f9844 100755
--- a/global/pre-tasks.d/015set-overlay-permissions
+++ b/global/pre-tasks.d/015set-overlay-permissions
@@ -15,5 +15,9 @@ if ! test -d "$MODEL_OVERLAY"; then
 fi
 
 if [ -d "$MODEL_OVERLAY/root" ]; then
-    chmod -v 0700 "$MODEL_OVERLAY"/root
+    args=""
+    if [ "x$COSMOS_VERBOSE" = "xy" ]; then
+        args="-v"
+    fi
+    chmod ${args} 0700 "$MODEL_OVERLAY"/root
 fi