diff --git a/bin/pt-query-digest b/bin/pt-query-digest
index 836f5427..027842f8 100755
--- a/bin/pt-query-digest
+++ b/bin/pt-query-digest
@@ -3531,20 +3531,6 @@ $Data::Dumper::Indent    = 1;
 $Data::Dumper::Sortkeys  = 1;
 $Data::Dumper::Quotekeys = 0;
 
-require Exporter;
-our @ISA         = qw(Exporter);
-our %EXPORT_TAGS = ();
-our @EXPORT      = ();
-our @EXPORT_OK   = qw(
-   parse_error_packet
-   parse_ok_packet
-   parse_ok_prepared_statement_packet
-   parse_server_handshake_packet
-   parse_client_handshake_packet
-   parse_com_packet
-   parse_flags
-);
-
 use constant {
    COM_SLEEP               => '00',
    COM_QUIT                => '01',
@@ -12377,7 +12363,7 @@ sub main {
 
    my $dp = $o->DSNParser();
    $dp->prop('set-vars', $o->get('set-vars'));
-
+   
    # Frequently used options.
    my $review_dsn = $o->get('review'); 
    my @groupby    = @{$o->get('group-by')};
diff --git a/lib/MySQLProtocolParser.pm b/lib/MySQLProtocolParser.pm
index 8b896467..764d426f 100644
--- a/lib/MySQLProtocolParser.pm
+++ b/lib/MySQLProtocolParser.pm
@@ -51,19 +51,7 @@ $Data::Dumper::Indent    = 1;
 $Data::Dumper::Sortkeys  = 1;
 $Data::Dumper::Quotekeys = 0;
 
-require Exporter;
-our @ISA         = qw(Exporter);
-our %EXPORT_TAGS = ();
-our @EXPORT      = ();
-our @EXPORT_OK   = qw(
-   parse_error_packet
-   parse_ok_packet
-   parse_ok_prepared_statement_packet
-   parse_server_handshake_packet
-   parse_client_handshake_packet
-   parse_com_packet
-   parse_flags
-);
+use base 'ProtocolParser';
 
 use constant {
    COM_SLEEP               => '00',
@@ -1526,46 +1514,6 @@ sub remove_mysql_header {
    return;
 }
 
-sub _get_errors_fh {
-   my ( $self ) = @_;
-   my $errors_fh = $self->{errors_fh};
-   return $errors_fh if $errors_fh;
-
-   # Errors file isn't open yet; try to open it.
-   my $o = $self->{o};
-   if ( $o && $o->has('tcpdump-errors') && $o->got('tcpdump-errors') ) {
-      my $errors_file = $o->get('tcpdump-errors');
-      PTDEBUG && _d('tcpdump-errors file:', $errors_file);
-      open $errors_fh, '>>', $errors_file
-         or die "Cannot open tcpdump-errors file $errors_file: $OS_ERROR";
-   }
-
-   $self->{errors_fh} = $errors_fh;
-   return $errors_fh;
-}
-
-sub fail_session {
-   my ( $self, $session, $reason ) = @_;
-   PTDEBUG && _d('Client', $session->{client}, 'failed because', $reason);
-   my $errors_fh = $self->_get_errors_fh();
-   if ( $errors_fh ) {
-      my $raw_packets = $session->{raw_packets};
-      delete $session->{raw_packets};  # Don't dump, it's printed below.
-      $session->{reason_for_failure} = $reason;
-      my $session_dump = '# ' . Dumper($session);
-      chomp $session_dump;
-      $session_dump =~ s/\n/\n# /g;
-      print $errors_fh "$session_dump\n";
-      {
-         local $LIST_SEPARATOR = "\n";
-         print $errors_fh "@$raw_packets";
-         print $errors_fh "\n";
-      }
-   }
-   delete $self->{sessions}->{$session->{client}};
-   return;
-}
-
 # Delete anything we added to the session related to
 # buffering a large query received in multiple packets.
 sub _delete_buff {
diff --git a/lib/PerconaTest.pm b/lib/PerconaTest.pm
index 5da730b4..3285d16f 100644
--- a/lib/PerconaTest.pm
+++ b/lib/PerconaTest.pm
@@ -448,6 +448,7 @@ sub test_protocol_parser {
    keys %args;
 
    my $file = "$trunk/$args{file}";
+   my ($base_file_name) = $args{file} =~ m/([^\/]+)$/;
    my @e;
    eval {
       open my $fh, "<", $file or die "Cannot open $file: $OS_ERROR";
@@ -463,11 +464,10 @@ sub test_protocol_parser {
       close $fh;
    };
 
-   my ($base_file_name) = $args{file} =~ m/([^\/]+)$/;
    is(
       $EVAL_ERROR,
       '',
-      "$base_file_name: no errors"
+      "$base_file_name: no perl errors"
    );
 
    if ( defined $args{result} ) {
diff --git a/lib/ProtocolParser.pm b/lib/ProtocolParser.pm
index a733e673..15678f99 100644
--- a/lib/ProtocolParser.pm
+++ b/lib/ProtocolParser.pm
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ use warnings FATAL => 'all';
 use English qw(-no_match_vars);
 use constant PTDEBUG => $ENV{PTDEBUG} || 0;
 
+use File::Basename qw(basename);
+use File::Temp qw(tempfile);
+
 eval {
    require IO::Uncompress::Inflate; # yum: perl-IO-Compress-Zlib
    IO::Uncompress::Inflate->import(qw(inflate $InflateError));
@@ -245,39 +248,34 @@ sub make_event {
 
 sub _get_errors_fh {
    my ( $self ) = @_;
-   my $errors_fh = $self->{errors_fh};
-   return $errors_fh if $errors_fh;
+   return $self->{errors_fh} if $self->{errors_fh};
 
+   my $exec = basename($0);
    # Errors file isn't open yet; try to open it.
-   my $o = $self->{o};
-   if ( $o && $o->has('tcpdump-errors') && $o->got('tcpdump-errors') ) {
-      my $errors_file = $o->get('tcpdump-errors');
-      PTDEBUG && _d('tcpdump-errors file:', $errors_file);
-      open $errors_fh, '>>', $errors_file
-         or die "Cannot open tcpdump-errors file $errors_file: $OS_ERROR";
-   }
+   my ($errors_fh, $filename) = tempfile("/tmp/$exec-errors.XXXXXXX", UNLINK => 0);
 
-   $self->{errors_fh} = $errors_fh;
+   $self->{errors_file} = $filename;
+   $self->{errors_fh}   = $errors_fh;
    return $errors_fh;
 }
 
 sub fail_session {
    my ( $self, $session, $reason ) = @_;
-   my $errors_fh = $self->_get_errors_fh();
-   if ( $errors_fh ) {
-      $session->{reason_for_failure} = $reason;
-      my $session_dump = '# ' . Dumper($session);
-      chomp $session_dump;
-      $session_dump =~ s/\n/\n# /g;
-      print $errors_fh "$session_dump\n";
-      {
-         local $LIST_SEPARATOR = "\n";
-         print $errors_fh "@{$session->{raw_packets}}";
-         print $errors_fh "\n";
-      }
-   }
    PTDEBUG && _d('Failed session', $session->{client}, 'because', $reason);
    delete $self->{sessions}->{$session->{client}};
+
+   return if $self->{_no_save_error};
+
+   my $errors_fh = $self->_get_errors_fh();
+
+   print "Session $session->{client} had errors, will save them in $self->{errors_file}\n";
+
+   my $raw_packets = delete $session->{raw_packets};
+   $session->{reason_for_failure} = $reason;
+   my $session_dump = '# ' . Dumper($session);
+   chomp $session_dump;
+   $session_dump =~ s/\n/\n# /g;
+   print $errors_fh join("\n", $session_dump, @$raw_packets), "\n";
    return;
 }
 
diff --git a/t/lib/MySQLProtocolParser.t b/t/lib/MySQLProtocolParser.t
index e63d2647..ebddcec5 100644
--- a/t/lib/MySQLProtocolParser.t
+++ b/t/lib/MySQLProtocolParser.t
@@ -285,16 +285,9 @@ test_protocol_parser(
 # #############################################################################
 # Check the individual packet parsing subs.
 # #############################################################################
-MySQLProtocolParser->import(qw(
-   parse_error_packet
-   parse_ok_packet
-   parse_server_handshake_packet
-   parse_client_handshake_packet
-   parse_com_packet
-));
  
 is_deeply(
-   parse_error_packet(load_data("t/lib/samples/mysql_proto_001.txt")),
+   MySQLProtocolParser::parse_error_packet(load_data("t/lib/samples/mysql_proto_001.txt")),
    {
       errno    => '1046',
       sqlstate => '#3D000',
@@ -304,7 +297,7 @@ is_deeply(
 );
 
 is_deeply(
-   parse_ok_packet('010002000100'),
+   MySQLProtocolParser::parse_ok_packet('010002000100'),
    {
       affected_rows => 1,
       insert_id     => 0,
@@ -316,7 +309,7 @@ is_deeply(
 );
 
 is_deeply(
-   parse_server_handshake_packet(load_data("t/lib/samples/mysql_proto_002.txt")),
+   MySQLProtocolParser::parse_server_handshake_packet(load_data("t/lib/samples/mysql_proto_002.txt")),
    {
       thread_id      => '9',
       server_version => '5.0.67-0ubuntu6-log',
@@ -345,7 +338,7 @@ is_deeply(
 );
 
 is_deeply(
-   parse_client_handshake_packet(load_data("t/lib/samples/mysql_proto_003.txt")),
+   MySQLProtocolParser::parse_client_handshake_packet(load_data("t/lib/samples/mysql_proto_003.txt")),
    {
       db    => 'mysql',
       user  => 'msandbox',
@@ -374,7 +367,7 @@ is_deeply(
 );
 
 is_deeply(
-   parse_com_packet('0373686f77207761726e696e67738d2dacbc', 14),
+   MySQLProtocolParser::parse_com_packet('0373686f77207761726e696e67738d2dacbc', 14),
    {
       code => '03',
       com  => 'COM_QUERY',
@@ -1274,6 +1267,7 @@ test_protocol_parser(
 # Issue 761: mk-query-digest --tcpdump does not handle incomplete packets
 # #############################################################################
 $protocol = new MySQLProtocolParser(server=>'127.0.0.1',port=>'3306');
+$protocol->{_no_save_error} = 1;
 test_protocol_parser(
    parser   => $tcpdump,
    protocol => $protocol,
@@ -1449,6 +1443,7 @@ test_protocol_parser(
 );
 
 $protocol = new MySQLProtocolParser();
+$protocol->{_no_save_error} = 1;
 test_protocol_parser(
    parser   => $tcpdump,
    protocol => $protocol,
@@ -1528,6 +1523,7 @@ test_protocol_parser(
 );
 
 $protocol = new MySQLProtocolParser();
+$protocol->{_no_save_error} = 1;
 test_protocol_parser(
    parser   => $tcpdump,
    protocol => $protocol,
@@ -1576,6 +1572,7 @@ test_protocol_parser(
 # client query
 # #############################################################################
 $protocol = new MySQLProtocolParser(server => '127.0.0.1',port=>'12345');
+$protocol->{_no_save_error} = 1;
 $e = test_protocol_parser(
    parser   => $tcpdump,
    protocol => $protocol,
@@ -1595,6 +1592,7 @@ $protocol = new MySQLProtocolParser(
    server => '127.0.0.1',
    port   => '3306',
 );
+$protocol->{_no_save_error} = 1;
 test_protocol_parser(
    parser   => $tcpdump,
    protocol => $protocol,
@@ -1745,6 +1743,37 @@ test_protocol_parser(
    ],
 );
 
+# #############################################################################
+# Save errors by default
+# #############################################################################
+$protocol = new MySQLProtocolParser(server=>'127.0.0.1',port=>'3306');
+
+my $out = output(sub {
+      open my $fh, "<", "$sample/tcpdump032.txt" or die "Cannot open tcpdump032.txt: $OS_ERROR";
+      my %parser_args = (
+         next_event => sub { return <$fh>; },
+         tell       => sub { return tell($fh);  },
+      );
+      while ( my $p = $tcpdump->parse_event(%parser_args) ) {
+         $protocol->parse_event(%parser_args, event => $p);
+      }
+      close $fh;
+});
+
+like(
+   $out,
+   qr/had errors, will save them in /,
+   "Saves errors by default"
+);
+
+close $protocol->{errors_fh}; # flush the handle
+
+like(
+   slurp_file($protocol->{errors_file}),
+   qr/got server response before full buffer/,
+   "The right error is saved"
+);
+
 # #############################################################################
 # Done.
 # #############################################################################