Index: trunk/ippScripts/scripts/magic_tree.pl
===================================================================
--- trunk/ippScripts/scripts/magic_tree.pl	(revision 27718)
+++ trunk/ippScripts/scripts/magic_tree.pl	(revision 29206)
@@ -83,8 +83,14 @@
     unless ($success) {
         $error_code = (($error_code >> 8) or $PS_EXIT_PROG_ERROR);
-        &my_die("Unable to perform magictool -inputfile: $error_code", $magic_id, $error_code);
-    }
-
-    my $metadata = $mdcParser->parse(join "", @$stdout_buf) or
+        &my_die("Unable to perform magictool -inputskyfile: $error_code", $magic_id, $error_code);
+    }
+
+    my $magictool_output = join "", @$stdout_buf;
+    # if there is no output from magictool that means that there are no
+    # diffSkyfiles with non-zero quality. Set fault to a special value so
+    # that these magicRuns can be recognized and dropped.
+    &my_die("magictool -inputskyfile returned no output. Inputs are probably all bad quality.", $magic_id, 42)
+        if !$magictool_output;
+    my $metadata = $mdcParser->parse($magictool_output) or
         &my_die("Unable to parse metadata config doc", $magic_id, $PS_EXIT_PROG_ERROR);