diff --git a/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh b/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh
index 95edc9e5bff..b86ea56c5c0 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-console-consumer.sh
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 export KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS="-Xmx512M"
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.consumer.ConsoleConsumer $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.consumer.ConsoleConsumer $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-console-producer.sh b/bin/kafka-console-producer.sh
index f102c2239a5..ec0f21f9a2e 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-console-producer.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-console-producer.sh
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 export KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS="-Xmx512M"
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.producer.ConsoleProducer $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.producer.ConsoleProducer $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-consumer-perf-test.sh b/bin/kafka-consumer-perf-test.sh
index 39434d162e5..38c56c78304 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-consumer-perf-test.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-consumer-perf-test.sh
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 export KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS="-Xmx512M"
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.perf.ConsumerPerformance $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.perf.ConsumerPerformance $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-preferred-replica-election.sh b/bin/kafka-preferred-replica-election.sh
index 6416dc16140..ed167c26ce9 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-preferred-replica-election.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-preferred-replica-election.sh
@@ -14,4 +14,4 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.admin.PreferredReplicaLeaderElectionCommand $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.admin.PreferredReplicaLeaderElectionCommand $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-producer-perf-test.sh b/bin/kafka-producer-perf-test.sh
index 1935522079c..d75ab7d1f30 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-producer-perf-test.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-producer-perf-test.sh
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 export KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS="-Xmx512M"
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.perf.ProducerPerformance $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.perf.ProducerPerformance $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh b/bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh
index a6bd148752b..95b4ae0e4f0 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-reassign-partitions.sh
@@ -14,4 +14,4 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.admin.ReassignPartitionsCommand $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.admin.ReassignPartitionsCommand $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-replay-log-producer.sh b/bin/kafka-replay-log-producer.sh
index 86943eed22e..8e2e7139f71 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-replay-log-producer.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-replay-log-producer.sh
@@ -14,4 +14,4 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.tools.ReplayLogProducer $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.tools.ReplayLogProducer $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-run-class.sh b/bin/kafka-run-class.sh
index eb6ff1b12e5..2ef75e49d28 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-run-class.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-run-class.sh
@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ fi
 
 # JVM performance options
 if [ -z "$KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS" ]; then
-  KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS="-server -XX:+UseCompressedOops -XX:+UseParNewGC -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX:+CMSScavengeBeforeRemark -XX:+DisableExplicitGC"
+  KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS="-server -XX:+UseCompressedOops -XX:+UseParNewGC -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX:+CMSScavengeBeforeRemark -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -Djava.awt.headless=true"
 fi
 
 # GC options
@@ -101,20 +101,6 @@ if [ "$1" = "daemon" ] && [ -z "$KAFKA_GC_LOG_OPTS"] ; then
   KAFKA_GC_LOG_OPTS="-Xloggc:$LOG_DIR/$GC_LOG_FILE_NAME -verbose:gc -XX:+PrintGCDetails -XX:+PrintGCDateStamps -XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps "
 fi
 
-$JAVA $KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS $KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS $KAFKA_GC_LOG_OPTS $KAFKA_JMX_OPTS $KAFKA_LOG4J_OPTS -cp $CLASSPATH $KAFKA_OPTS "$@"
-
-exitval=$?
-
-if [ $exitval -eq "1" ] ; then 
-	$JAVA $KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS $KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS $KAFKA_GC_LOG_OPTS $KAFKA_JMX_OPTS $KAFKA_LOG4J_OPTS -cp $CLASSPATH $KAFKA_OPTS "$@" >& exception.txt
-	exception=`cat exception.txt`
-	noBuildMessage='Please build the project using sbt. Documentation is available at http://kafka.apache.org/'
-	pattern="(Could not find or load main class)|(java\.lang\.NoClassDefFoundError)"
-	match=`echo $exception | grep -E "$pattern"`
-	if [[ -n "$match" ]]; then 
-		echo $noBuildMessage
-	fi
-	rm exception.txt
-fi
+exec $JAVA $KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS $KAFKA_JVM_PERFORMANCE_OPTS $KAFKA_GC_LOG_OPTS $KAFKA_JMX_OPTS $KAFKA_LOG4J_OPTS -cp $CLASSPATH $KAFKA_OPTS "$@"
 
 
diff --git a/bin/kafka-server-start.sh b/bin/kafka-server-start.sh
index 4005289428d..4a36b2d97af 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-server-start.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-server-start.sh
@@ -22,4 +22,4 @@ fi
 base_dir=$(dirname $0)
 export KAFKA_LOG4J_OPTS="-Dlog4j.configuration=file:$base_dir/../config/log4j.properties"
 export KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS="-Xmx1G -Xms1G"
-$base_dir/kafka-run-class.sh daemon kafkaServer kafka.Kafka $@
+exec $base_dir/kafka-run-class.sh daemon kafkaServer kafka.Kafka $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-simple-consumer-perf-test.sh b/bin/kafka-simple-consumer-perf-test.sh
index 94c9ed0bfc2..c466cc8886a 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-simple-consumer-perf-test.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-simple-consumer-perf-test.sh
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 export KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS="-Xmx512M"
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.perf.SimpleConsumerPerformance $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.perf.SimpleConsumerPerformance $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-simple-consumer-shell.sh b/bin/kafka-simple-consumer-shell.sh
index 8d69357838f..9316f7908df 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-simple-consumer-shell.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-simple-consumer-shell.sh
@@ -14,4 +14,4 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.tools.SimpleConsumerShell $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.tools.SimpleConsumerShell $@
diff --git a/bin/kafka-topics.sh b/bin/kafka-topics.sh
index cb76590c269..b39b2729170 100755
--- a/bin/kafka-topics.sh
+++ b/bin/kafka-topics.sh
@@ -14,4 +14,4 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.admin.TopicCommand $@
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.admin.TopicCommand $@
diff --git a/bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh b/bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh
index e4746a84b3b..cdbbf33886d 100755
--- a/bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh
+++ b/bin/zookeeper-server-start.sh
@@ -22,5 +22,5 @@ fi
 base_dir=$(dirname $0)
 export KAFKA_LOG4J_OPTS="-Dlog4j.configuration=file:$base_dir/../config/log4j.properties"
 export KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS="-Xmx512M -Xms512M"
-$base_dir/kafka-run-class.sh daemon zookeeper org.apache.zookeeper.server.quorum.QuorumPeerMain $@
+exec $base_dir/kafka-run-class.sh daemon zookeeper org.apache.zookeeper.server.quorum.QuorumPeerMain $@
 
diff --git a/bin/zookeeper-shell.sh b/bin/zookeeper-shell.sh
index e0de33f2e16..92cce7600ef 100755
--- a/bin/zookeeper-shell.sh
+++ b/bin/zookeeper-shell.sh
@@ -20,4 +20,4 @@ then
 	exit 1
 fi
 
-$(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeperMain -server $1
\ No newline at end of file
+exec $(dirname $0)/kafka-run-class.sh org.apache.zookeeper.ZooKeeperMain -server $1
\ No newline at end of file