diff --git a/test/test-govet.sh b/test/test-govet.sh
index 4865d8fe..294ea108 100755
--- a/test/test-govet.sh
+++ b/test/test-govet.sh
@@ -50,6 +50,10 @@ function naked-error() {
 }
 
 function consistent-imports() {
+	if [ "$1" = './util/errwrap/errwrap.go' ]; then
+		return 0
+	fi
+
 	if grep $'\t"github.com/pkg/errors"' "$1"; then	# import as errwrap
 		return 1
 	fi
diff --git a/util/errwrap/errwrap.go b/util/errwrap/errwrap.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a09ac6c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/errwrap/errwrap.go
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+// Mgmt
+// Copyright (C) 2013-2018+ James Shubin and the project contributors
+// Written by James Shubin <james@shubin.ca> and the project contributors
+//
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+// Package errwrap contains some error helpers.
+package errwrap
+
+import (
+	"github.com/hashicorp/go-multierror"
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
+)
+
+// Wrapf adds a new error onto an existing chain of errors. If the new error to
+// be added is nil, then the old error is returned unchanged.
+func Wrapf(err error, format string, args ...interface{}) error {
+	return errors.Wrapf(err, format, args...)
+}
+
+// Append can be used to safely append an error onto an existing one. If you
+// pass in a nil error to append, the existing error will be returned unchanged.
+// If the existing error is already nil, then the new error will be returned
+// unchanged. This makes it easy to use Append as a safe `reterr += err`, when
+// you don't know if either is nil or not.
+func Append(reterr, err error) error {
+	if reterr == nil { // keep it simple, pass it through
+		return err // which might even be nil
+	}
+	if err == nil { // no error, so don't do anything
+		return reterr
+	}
+	// both are real errors
+	return multierror.Append(reterr, err)
+}
diff --git a/util/errwrap/errwrap_test.go b/util/errwrap/errwrap_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..682ee4c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/errwrap/errwrap_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+// Mgmt
+// Copyright (C) 2013-2018+ James Shubin and the project contributors
+// Written by James Shubin <james@shubin.ca> and the project contributors
+//
+// This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+// (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+// GNU General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+// along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+// +build !root
+
+package errwrap
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestWrapfErr1(t *testing.T) {
+	if err := Wrapf(nil, "whatever: %d", 42); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("expected nil result")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAppendErr1(t *testing.T) {
+	if err := Append(nil, nil); err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("expected nil result")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAppendErr2(t *testing.T) {
+	reterr := fmt.Errorf("reterr")
+	if err := Append(reterr, nil); err != reterr {
+		t.Errorf("expected reterr")
+	}
+}
+
+func TestAppendErr3(t *testing.T) {
+	err := fmt.Errorf("err")
+	if reterr := Append(nil, err); reterr != err {
+		t.Errorf("expected err")
+	}
+}