diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
index 16552e6..0dda320 100644
--- a/HACKING
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -9,6 +9,17 @@ See http://docs.python.org/dev/howto/pyporting.html
 and http://python3porting.com/differences.html
 for tips on writing portable Python code.
 
+In particular, you must capture exceptions in a way that's
+compatible with both python 2.4 and 3.x. For example:
+
+    try:
+        raise Exception()
+    except Exception:
+        import sys
+        exc = sys.exc_info()[1]
+        # Current exception is 'exc'.
+        pass
+
 
 Tests
 -----
diff --git a/src/tito/builder/main.py b/src/tito/builder/main.py
index 233d06d..68c3d0e 100644
--- a/src/tito/builder/main.py
+++ b/src/tito/builder/main.py
@@ -227,13 +227,15 @@ class BuilderBase(object):
         except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
             print ""
             exit(1)
-        except RunCommandException, err:
+        except RunCommandException:
+            err = sys.exc_info()[1]
             msg = str(err)
             if (re.search('Failed build dependencies', err.output)):
                 msg = "Please run 'yum-builddep %s' as root." % \
                     find_spec_file(self.relative_project_dir)
             error_out('%s' % msg)
-        except Exception, err:
+        except Exception:
+            err = sys.exc_info()[1]
             error_out('%s' % str(err))
         print(output)
         files_written = find_wrote_in_rpmbuild_output(output)
diff --git a/src/tito/cli.py b/src/tito/cli.py
index a422f0e..c2b06f9 100644
--- a/src/tito/cli.py
+++ b/src/tito/cli.py
@@ -709,7 +709,8 @@ class TagModule(BaseCliModule):
 
         try:
             return tagger.run(self.options)
-        except TitoException, e:
+        except TitoException:
+            e = sys.exc_info()[1]
             error_out(e.message)
 
     def _validate_options(self):
diff --git a/src/tito/release.py b/src/tito/release.py
index 822712a..8c49599 100644
--- a/src/tito/release.py
+++ b/src/tito/release.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Code for submitting builds for release.
 
 import copy
 import os
+import sys
 import commands
 import tempfile
 import subprocess
@@ -454,7 +455,7 @@ class YumRepoReleaser(RsyncReleaser):
             if artifact.endswith(".rpm") and not artifact.endswith(".src.rpm"):
                 try:
                     header = self._read_rpm_header(rpm_ts, artifact)
-                except rpm.error, e:
+                except rpm.error:
                     continue
                 self.new_rpm_dep_sets[header['name']] = header.dsOfHeader()
 
@@ -467,7 +468,8 @@ class YumRepoReleaser(RsyncReleaser):
             full_path = os.path.join(temp_dir, filename)
             try:
                 hdr = self._read_rpm_header(rpm_ts, full_path)
-            except rpm.error, e:
+            except rpm.error:
+                e = sys.exc_info()[1]
                 print "error reading rpm header in '%s': %s" % (full_path, e)
                 continue
             if hdr['name'] in self.new_rpm_dep_sets:
diff --git a/test/unit/pep8-tests.py b/test/unit/pep8-tests.py
index 7f1050d..8a5ec36 100644
--- a/test/unit/pep8-tests.py
+++ b/test/unit/pep8-tests.py
@@ -64,3 +64,23 @@ class TestPep8(TitoUnitTestFixture):
 
         self.assertEqual(result, 0,
             "Found PEP8 errors that may break your code in Python 3.")
+
+
+class UglyHackishTest(TitoUnitTestFixture):
+    def setUp(self):
+        TitoUnitTestFixture.setUp(self)
+        os.chdir(REPO_DIR)
+
+    def test_exceptions_2_dot_4(self):
+        # detect 'except rpm.error as e:'
+        regex = "'^[[:space:]]*except .* as .*:'"
+        cmd = "find . -type f -regex '.*\.py$' -exec egrep %s {} + | wc -l" % regex
+        result = int(getoutput(cmd))
+        self.assertEqual(result, 0, "Found except clause not supported in Python 2.4")
+
+    def test_exceptions_3(self):
+        # detect 'except rpm.error, e:'
+        regex = "'^[[:space:]]*except [^,]+,[[:space:]]*[[:alpha:]]+:'"
+        cmd = "find . -type f -regex '.*\.py$' -exec egrep %s {} + | wc -l" % regex
+        result = int(getoutput(cmd))
+        self.assertEqual(result, 0, "Found except clause not supported in Python 3")