diff --git a/support/testing/tests/utils/test_get_developers.py b/support/testing/tests/utils/test_get_developers.py
index 12710fe8d3..0b313c7c59 100644
--- a/support/testing/tests/utils/test_get_developers.py
+++ b/support/testing/tests/utils/test_get_developers.py
@@ -70,11 +70,11 @@ class TestGetDevelopers(unittest.TestCase):
                      b'F:\tutils/get-developers\n'
         out, err, rc = call_get_developers("get-developers", ["-v"], self.WITH_UTILS_IN_PATH, topdir, developers)
         self.assertIn("Syntax error in DEVELOPERS file, line 1", err)
-        self.assertEqual(rc, 0)
+        self.assertEqual(rc, 1)
         self.assertEqual(len(out), 0)
         self.assertEqual(len(err), 1)
 
-        # -v generating error for developer entry with no file entries
+        # -v generating error for developer entry with no file entries, stopping on first error
         developers = b'# comment\n' \
                      b'# comment\n' \
                      b'\n' \
@@ -84,10 +84,9 @@ class TestGetDevelopers(unittest.TestCase):
                      b'F:\tutils/get-developers\n'
         out, err, rc = call_get_developers("get-developers", ["-v"], self.WITH_UTILS_IN_PATH, topdir, developers)
         self.assertIn("Syntax error in DEVELOPERS file, line 1", err)
-        self.assertIn("Syntax error in DEVELOPERS file, line 2", err)
-        self.assertEqual(rc, 0)
+        self.assertEqual(rc, 1)
         self.assertEqual(len(out), 0)
-        self.assertEqual(len(err), 2)
+        self.assertEqual(len(err), 1)
 
         # -v not generating error for developer entry with empty list of file entries
         developers = b'# comment\n' \
diff --git a/utils/getdeveloperlib.py b/utils/getdeveloperlib.py
index 2a8d5c213c..dbd21af443 100644
--- a/utils/getdeveloperlib.py
+++ b/utils/getdeveloperlib.py
@@ -243,6 +243,7 @@ def parse_developers(filename=None):
                 if name is not None or len(files) != 0:
                     print("Syntax error in DEVELOPERS file, line %d" % linen,
                           file=sys.stderr)
+                    return None
                 name = line[2:].strip()
             elif line.startswith("F:"):
                 fname = line[2:].strip()