diff --git a/Doc/Manual/Python.html b/Doc/Manual/Python.html
index cf0f86024..ebcf8bbc9 100644
--- a/Doc/Manual/Python.html
+++ b/Doc/Manual/Python.html
@@ -3717,7 +3717,7 @@ or a NULL pointer perhaps).  Here is a simple example of how you might handle th
   $action
   if (!result) {
      PyErr_SetString(PyExc_MemoryError,"Not enough memory");
-     return NULL;
+     SWIG_fail;
   }
 }
 void *malloc(size_t nbytes);
@@ -3749,7 +3749,7 @@ that.  For example:
    $action
    if (err_occurred()) {
       PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, err_message());
-      return NULL;
+      SWIG_fail;
    }
 }
 </pre>
@@ -3770,7 +3770,7 @@ C++ exceptions are also easy to handle.  For example, you can write code like th
       $action
    } catch (std::out_of_range &amp;e) {
       PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IndexError, const_cast&lt;char*&gt;(e.what()));
-      return NULL;
+      SWIG_fail;
    }
 }
 
@@ -3784,7 +3784,8 @@ public:
 
 <p>
 When raising a Python exception from C, use the <tt>PyErr_SetString()</tt>
-function as shown above.  The following exception types can be used as the first argument.
+function as shown above followed by <tt>SWIG_fail</tt>.
+The following exception types can be used as the first argument.
 </p>
 
 <div class="code">
@@ -3818,6 +3819,13 @@ PyExc_ZeroDivisionError
 </pre>
 </div>
 
+<p>
+<tt>SWIG_fail</tt> is a C macro which when called within the context of SWIG wrapper function,
+will jump to the error handler code. This will call any cleanup code (freeing any temp variables)
+and then return from the wrapper function so that the Python interpreter can raise the Python exception.
+This macro should always be called after setting a Python error in code snippets, such as typemaps and <tt>%exception</tt>, that are ultimately generated into the wrapper function.
+</p>
+
 <p>
 The language-independent <tt>exception.i</tt> library file can also be used
 to raise exceptions.  See the <a href="Library.html#Library">SWIG Library</a> chapter.
@@ -4417,7 +4425,7 @@ You can refine this by supplying an optional parameter name.  For example:
   $1 = (int) PyLong_AsLong($input);
   if ($1 &lt; 0) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a nonnegative value.");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
 }
 %inline %{
@@ -4750,18 +4758,18 @@ object to be used as a <tt>char **</tt> object.
     $1 = (char **) malloc((size+1)*sizeof(char *));
     for (i = 0; i &lt; size; i++) {
       PyObject *o = PyList_GetItem($input,i);
-      if (PyString_Check(o))
+      if (PyString_Check(o)) {
         $1[i] = PyString_AsString(PyList_GetItem($input,i));
-      else {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"list must contain strings");
+      } else {
         free($1);
-        return NULL;
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"list must contain strings");
+        SWIG_fail;
       }
     }
     $1[i] = 0;
   } else {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"not a list");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
 }
 
@@ -4849,18 +4857,18 @@ previous example:
     $2 = (char **) malloc(($1+1)*sizeof(char *));
     for (i = 0; i &lt; $1; i++) {
       PyObject *o = PyList_GetItem($input,i);
-      if (PyString_Check(o))
+      if (PyString_Check(o)) {
         $2[i] = PyString_AsString(PyList_GetItem($input,i));
-      else {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"list must contain strings");
+      } else {
         free($2);
-        return NULL;
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"list must contain strings");
+        SWIG_fail;
       }
     }
     $2[i] = 0;
   } else {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"not a list");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
 }
 
@@ -5038,12 +5046,12 @@ This too, can be handled used typemaps as follows :
   if (PyTuple_Check($input)) {
     if (!PyArg_ParseTuple($input,"dddd",temp,temp+1,temp+2,temp+3)) {
       PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"tuple must have 4 elements");
-      return NULL;
+      SWIG_fail;
     }
     $1 = &amp;temp[0];
   } else {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"expected a tuple.");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
 }
 
@@ -5078,18 +5086,18 @@ arrays of different sizes.  To do this, you might write a typemap as follows:
   int i;
   if (!PySequence_Check($input)) {
       PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"Expecting a sequence");
-      return NULL;
+      SWIG_fail;
   }
   if (PyObject_Length($input) != $1_dim0) {
       PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expecting a sequence with $1_dim0 elements");
-      return NULL;
+      SWIG_fail;
   }
   for (i =0; i &lt; $1_dim0; i++) {
       PyObject *o = PySequence_GetItem($input,i);
       if (!PyFloat_Check(o)) {
          Py_XDECREF(o);
          PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expecting a sequence of floats");
-         return NULL;
+         SWIG_fail;
       }
       temp[i] = PyFloat_AsDouble(o);
       Py_DECREF(o);
@@ -5146,7 +5154,7 @@ static int convert_darray(PyObject *input, double *ptr, int size) {
 
 %typemap(in) double [ANY](double temp[$1_dim0]) {
    if (!convert_darray($input,temp,$1_dim0)) {
-      return NULL;
+      SWIG_fail;
    }
    $1 = &amp;temp[0];
 }
diff --git a/Doc/Manual/Typemaps.html b/Doc/Manual/Typemaps.html
index 309984b50..d7226e33f 100644
--- a/Doc/Manual/Typemaps.html
+++ b/Doc/Manual/Typemaps.html
@@ -373,11 +373,11 @@ example, you could write a typemap like this:
 <div class="code">
 <pre>
 %typemap(in) <b>double nonnegative</b> {
-   $1 = PyFloat_AsDouble($input);
-   if ($1 &lt; 0) {
-        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"argument must be nonnegative.");
-        return NULL;
-   }
+  $1 = PyFloat_AsDouble($input);
+  if ($1 &lt; 0) {
+    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"argument must be nonnegative.");
+    SWIG_fail;
+  }
 }
 
 ...
@@ -2964,11 +2964,11 @@ similar to this:
   int i;
   if (!PySequence_Check($input)) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a sequence");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   if (PySequence_Length($input) != 4) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Size mismatch. Expected 4 elements");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   for (i = 0; i &lt; 4; i++) {
     PyObject *o = PySequence_GetItem($input,i);
@@ -2976,7 +2976,7 @@ similar to this:
       temp[i] = (float) PyFloat_AsDouble(o);
     } else {
       PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Sequence elements must be numbers");      
-      return NULL;
+      SWIG_fail;
     }
   }
   $1 = temp;
@@ -3009,11 +3009,11 @@ If you wanted to generalize the typemap to apply to arrays of all dimensions you
   int i;
   if (!PySequence_Check($input)) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a sequence");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   if (PySequence_Length($input) != $1_dim0) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Size mismatch. Expected $1_dim0 elements");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   for (i = 0; i &lt; $1_dim0; i++) {
     PyObject *o = PySequence_GetItem($input,i);
@@ -3021,7 +3021,7 @@ If you wanted to generalize the typemap to apply to arrays of all dimensions you
       temp[i] = (float) PyFloat_AsDouble(o);
     } else {
       PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Sequence elements must be numbers");      
-      return NULL;
+      SWIG_fail;
     }
   }
   $1 = temp;
@@ -3053,11 +3053,11 @@ as shown.   To work with heap allocated data, the following technique can be use
   int i;
   if (!PySequence_Check($input)) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a sequence");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   if (PySequence_Length($input) != $1_dim0) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Size mismatch. Expected $1_dim0 elements");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   $1 = (float *) malloc($1_dim0*sizeof(float));
   for (i = 0; i &lt; $1_dim0; i++) {
@@ -3065,9 +3065,9 @@ as shown.   To work with heap allocated data, the following technique can be use
     if (PyNumber_Check(o)) {
       $1[i] = (float) PyFloat_AsDouble(o);
     } else {
-      PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Sequence elements must be numbers");      
       free($1);
-      return NULL;
+      PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Sequence elements must be numbers");
+      SWIG_fail;
     }
   }
 }
@@ -3229,7 +3229,7 @@ pointers. For example:</p>
 %typemap(check) Vector * {
     if ($1 == 0) {
         PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"NULL Pointer not allowed");
-        return NULL;
+        SWIG_fail;
    }
 }
 
@@ -3508,7 +3508,7 @@ maps perform the conversion described for the above example:
   int i;
   if (!PyList_Check($input)) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Expecting a list");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   $1 = PyList_Size($input);
   $2 = (char **) malloc(($1+1)*sizeof(char *));
@@ -3517,7 +3517,7 @@ maps perform the conversion described for the above example:
     if (!PyString_Check(s)) {
         free($2);
         PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "List items must be strings");
-        return NULL;
+        SWIG_fail;
     }
     $2[i] = PyString_AsString(s);
   }
@@ -3633,7 +3633,7 @@ might write typemaps like this:
 %typemap(in) (void *wbuffer, size_t len) {
    if (!PyString_Check($input)) {
        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Expecting a string");
-       return NULL;
+       SWIG_fail;
    }
    $1 = (void *) PyString_AsString($input);
    $2 = PyString_Size($input);
@@ -3643,12 +3643,12 @@ might write typemaps like this:
 %typemap(in) (void *rbuffer, size_t len) {
    if (!PyInt_Check($input)) {
        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Expecting an integer");
-       return NULL;
+       SWIG_fail;
    }
    $2 = PyInt_AsLong($input);
    if ($2 &lt; 0) {
        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Positive integer expected");
-       return NULL;
+       SWIG_fail;
    }
    $1 = (void *) malloc($2);
 }
diff --git a/Doc/Manual/Varargs.html b/Doc/Manual/Varargs.html
index 1c99804f1..21a41948e 100644
--- a/Doc/Manual/Varargs.html
+++ b/Doc/Manual/Varargs.html
@@ -517,7 +517,7 @@ like this:
   argc = PyTuple_Size(varargs);
   if (argc &gt; 10) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Too many arguments");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   for (i = 0; i &lt; argc; i++) {
     PyObject *pyobj = PyTuple_GetItem(varargs, i);
@@ -526,7 +526,7 @@ like this:
     PyObject *pystr;
     if (!PyUnicode_Check(pyobj)) {
        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Expected a string");
-       return NULL;
+       SWIG_fail;
     }
     pystr = PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(pyobj);
     str = strdup(PyBytes_AsString(pystr));
@@ -534,7 +534,7 @@ like this:
 %#else  
     if (!PyString_Check(pyobj)) {
        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Expected a string");
-       return NULL;
+       SWIG_fail;
     }
     str = PyString_AsString(pyobj);
 %#endif
@@ -635,9 +635,9 @@ example. For example:
    for (i = 0; i &lt; argc; i++) {
       PyObject *o = PyTuple_GetItem(varargs,i);
       if (!PyString_Check(o)) {
-          PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a string");
           free(argv);
-          return NULL;
+          PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a string");
+          SWIG_fail;
       }
       argv[i] = PyString_AsString(o);
    }
@@ -676,11 +676,11 @@ example. For example:
                    &amp;ffi_type_uint, types) == FFI_OK) {
     ffi_call(&amp;cif, (void (*)()) execlp, &amp;result, values);
   } else {
-    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, "Whoa!!!!!");
     free(types);
     free(values);
     free(arg3);
-    return NULL;
+    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, "Whoa!!!!!");
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   free(types);
   free(values);
@@ -744,8 +744,8 @@ As a more extreme example of libffi, here is some code that attempts to wrap <tt
       argv[i].type = VT_POINTER;
       argv[i].val.pvalue = (void *) PyString_AsString(o);
     } else {
-      PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Unsupported argument type");
       free(argv);
+      PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Unsupported argument type");
       return NULL;
     }
   }
@@ -793,11 +793,11 @@ As a more extreme example of libffi, here is some code that attempts to wrap <tt
                    &amp;ffi_type_uint, types) == FFI_OK) {
     ffi_call(&amp;cif, (void (*)()) printf, &amp;result, values);
   } else {
-    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, "Whoa!!!!!");
     free(types);
     free(values);
     free(args);
-    return NULL;
+    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, "Whoa!!!!!");
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   free(types);
   free(values);
diff --git a/Examples/python/libffi/example.i b/Examples/python/libffi/example.i
index 9a29ec04e..3f5d766c5 100644
--- a/Examples/python/libffi/example.i
+++ b/Examples/python/libffi/example.i
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
       PyObject *o = PyTuple_GetItem(varargs,i);
       if (!PyString_Check(o)) {
           PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a string");
-          return NULL;
+          SWIG_fail;
       }
       argv[i] = PyString_AsString(o);
    }
@@ -58,11 +58,11 @@
                    &ffi_type_uint, types) == FFI_OK) {
     ffi_call(&cif, (void (*)()) execlp, &result, values);
   } else {
-    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, "Whoa!!!!!");
     free(types);
     free(values);
     free(arg3);
-    return NULL;
+    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, "Whoa!!!!!");
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   free(types);
   free(values);
@@ -107,9 +107,9 @@ int execlp(const char *path, const char *arg1, ...);
       argv[i].type = VT_POINTER;
       argv[i].val.pvalue = (void *) PyString_AsString(o);
     } else {
-      PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Unsupported argument type");
       free(argv);
-      return NULL;
+      PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Unsupported argument type");
+      SWIG_fail;
     }
   }
 
@@ -157,11 +157,11 @@ int execlp(const char *path, const char *arg1, ...);
                    &ffi_type_uint, types) == FFI_OK) {
     ffi_call(&cif, (void (*)()) printf, &result, values);
   } else {
-    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, "Whoa!!!!!");
     free(types);
     free(values);
     free(args);
-    return NULL;
+    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError, "Whoa!!!!!");
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   free(types);
   free(values);
diff --git a/Examples/python/multimap/example.i b/Examples/python/multimap/example.i
index 635f61c13..66c0f74c6 100644
--- a/Examples/python/multimap/example.i
+++ b/Examples/python/multimap/example.i
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ extern int gcdmain(int argc, char *argv[]);
   PyObject *utf8str;
   if (!PyUnicode_Check($input)) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a string");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   utf8str = PyUnicode_AsUTF8String($input);
   PyBytes_AsStringAndSize(utf8str, &cstr, &len);
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ extern int gcdmain(int argc, char *argv[]);
 %#else
   if (!PyString_Check($input)) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"Expected a string");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   $1 = PyString_AsString($input);
   $2 = (int)PyString_Size($input);
diff --git a/Examples/test-suite/namespace_typemap.i b/Examples/test-suite/namespace_typemap.i
index 7f474bd9c..9c74715f0 100644
--- a/Examples/test-suite/namespace_typemap.i
+++ b/Examples/test-suite/namespace_typemap.i
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ namespace test {
 			 PyComplex_ImagAsDouble($input));
     } else {
 	PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError,"Expected test_complex.\n");
-	return NULL;
+	SWIG_fail;
     }
 }
 %typemap(freearg) test::test_complex * {
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ namespace Split {
 	$1 = PyInt_AsLong($input);
 	if ($1 < 0) {
 	    PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError,"domain error\n");
-	    return NULL;
+	    SWIG_fail;
 	}
     }	
 #endif
diff --git a/Examples/test-suite/python_varargs_typemap.i b/Examples/test-suite/python_varargs_typemap.i
index c7d8b83ec..f05fb98eb 100644
--- a/Examples/test-suite/python_varargs_typemap.i
+++ b/Examples/test-suite/python_varargs_typemap.i
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
   argc = PyTuple_Size(varargs);
   if (argc > 10) {
     PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Too many arguments");
-    return NULL;
+    SWIG_fail;
   }
   for (i = 0; i < argc; i++) {
     PyObject *pyobj = PyTuple_GetItem(varargs, i);
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
     PyObject *pystr;
     if (!PyUnicode_Check(pyobj)) {
        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Expected a string");
-       return NULL;
+       SWIG_fail;
     }
     pystr = PyUnicode_AsUTF8String(pyobj);
     str = strdup(PyBytes_AsString(pystr));
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@
 %#else  
     if (!PyString_Check(pyobj)) {
        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "Expected a string");
-       return NULL;
+       SWIG_fail;
     }
     str = PyString_AsString(pyobj);
 %#endif