diff --git a/git-filter-repo b/git-filter-repo
index 28a063a7..edf570fd 100755
--- a/git-filter-repo
+++ b/git-filter-repo
@@ -3100,7 +3100,9 @@ class RepoFilter(object):
     for cmd in cleanup_cmds:
       if show_debuginfo:
         print("[DEBUG] Running{}: {}".format(location_info, ' '.join(cmd)))
-      subproc.call(cmd, cwd=repo)
+      ret = subproc.call(cmd, cwd=repo)
+      if ret != 0:
+        raise SystemExit("fatal: running '%s' failed!" % ' '.join(cmd))
       if cmd[0:3] == 'git reflog expire'.split():
         self._write_stash()
 
diff --git a/t/t9390-filter-repo.sh b/t/t9390-filter-repo.sh
index 179f4171..fd81fb96 100755
--- a/t/t9390-filter-repo.sh
+++ b/t/t9390-filter-repo.sh
@@ -1959,4 +1959,22 @@ test_expect_success 'rewrite stash' '
 	)
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'failure to run cleanup' '
+	test_create_repo fail_to_cleanup &&
+	(
+		cd fail_to_cleanup &&
+
+		git init &&
+		test_write_lines 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >numbers &&
+		git add numbers &&
+		git commit -qm initial &&
+
+		chmod u-w .git/logs &&
+		test_must_fail git filter-repo --force \
+		                       --path-rename numbers:values 2> ../err &&
+		chmod u+w .git/logs &&
+		grep fatal.*git.reflog.expire.*failed ../err
+	)
+'
+
 test_done