diff --git a/check_gitlab_tokens b/check_gitlab_tokens
index c3ad8495a6ae11fcde45308a89d873923f17bf11..0d22f9c12075b857ba57a797b2d3f8e872188361 100755
--- a/check_gitlab_tokens
+++ b/check_gitlab_tokens
@@ -194,9 +194,9 @@ GITLAB_CONFIG=$( ph.getValueWithParam $GITLAB_CONFIG g "$@")
 
 # --- check requirements
 ph.require curl
-. "${GITLAB_CONFIG}" || exit 1
-. "${REST_CLIENT}" || exit 1
-http.help >/dev/null || exit 1
+. "${GITLAB_CONFIG}" || ph.abort "UNKNOWN: Could not read gitlab config $GITLAB_CONFIG"
+. "${REST_CLIENT}"   || ph.abort "UNKNOWN: Could not read $REST_CLIENT"
+http.help >/dev/null || ph.abort "UNKNOWN: http functions not available. Check -r $REST_CLIENT."
 
 
 iWarnLimit=$(     ph.getValueWithParam $iWarnLimit     w "$@")