diff --git a/gcc/ChangeLog b/gcc/ChangeLog
index 3cc70a128299..81ffc51e3b47 100644
--- a/gcc/ChangeLog
+++ b/gcc/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2007-01-18  Ben Elliston  <bje@au.ibm.com>
+
+	* genautomata.c (write_automata): Include xstrerror output in the
+	error message if writing the DFA description file fails.
+
 2007-01-17  H.J. Lu  <hongjiu.lu@intel.com>
 
 	* config/mips/mips-protos.h (mips_output_external): Make it
diff --git a/gcc/genautomata.c b/gcc/genautomata.c
index e63df33e9529..d4b94ca05c4d 100644
--- a/gcc/genautomata.c
+++ b/gcc/genautomata.c
@@ -9234,8 +9234,8 @@ write_automata (void)
     {
       fflush (output_description_file);
       if (ferror (stdout) != 0)
-	fatal ("Error in writing DFA description file %s",
-               output_description_file_name);
+	fatal ("Error in writing DFA description file %s: %s",
+               output_description_file_name, xstrerror (errno));
       fclose (output_description_file);
     }
   finish_automaton_decl_table ();