src/cmd/godoc/dirtrees.go | 21 ++++++++++++++++++---
 src/cmd/godoc/godoc.go    |  7 ++++---

diff --git a/src/cmd/godoc/dirtrees.go b/src/cmd/godoc/dirtrees.go
index edb4a169d13691eb3a143a8b73af3bdefe42d79b..d6d88c2f9a99bb25c4d450fada46d1a76ed46fe4 100644
--- a/src/cmd/godoc/dirtrees.go
+++ b/src/cmd/godoc/dirtrees.go
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ 	"go/doc"
 	"go/parser"
 	"go/token"
 	"io/ioutil"
+	"log"
 	"os"
 	pathutil "path"
 	"strings"
@@ -100,7 +101,13 @@ 		// directory depth
 		return &Directory{depth, path, name, "", nil}
 	}
 
-	list, _ := ioutil.ReadDir(path) // ignore errors
+	list, err := ioutil.ReadDir(path)
+	if err != nil {
+		// newDirTree is called with a path that should be a package
+		// directory; errors here should not happen, but if they do,
+		// we want to know about them
+		log.Printf("ioutil.ReadDir(%s): %s", path, err)
+	}
 
 	// determine number of subdirectories and if there are package files
 	ndirs := 0
@@ -188,8 +195,16 @@ // are assumed to contain package files even if their contents are not known
 // (i.e., in this case the tree may contain directories w/o any package files).
 //
 func newDirectory(root string, pathFilter func(string) bool, maxDepth int) *Directory {
-	d, err := os.Lstat(root)
-	if err != nil || !isPkgDir(d) {
+	// The root could be a symbolic link so use os.Stat not os.Lstat.
+	d, err := os.Stat(root)
+	// If we fail here, report detailed error messages; otherwise
+	// is is hard to see why a directory tree was not built.
+	switch {
+	case err != nil:
+		log.Printf("newDirectory(%s): %s", root, err)
+		return nil
+	case !isPkgDir(d):
+		log.Printf("newDirectory(%s): not a package directory", root)
 		return nil
 	}
 	if maxDepth < 0 {
diff --git a/src/cmd/godoc/godoc.go b/src/cmd/godoc/godoc.go
index 957935125e90965745b8cb8f793d9a4a05f15d20..efb386f06e62e24e11832f33e5745b25cd89dbf6 100644
--- a/src/cmd/godoc/godoc.go
+++ b/src/cmd/godoc/godoc.go
@@ -213,9 +213,10 @@ 	// setup initial path filter
 	if *filter != "" {
 		list, err := readDirList(*filter)
 		if err != nil {
-			log.Printf("%s", err)
-		} else if len(list) == 0 {
-			log.Printf("no directory paths in file %s", *filter)
+			log.Printf("readDirList(%s): %s", *filter, err)
+		}
+		if *verbose || len(list) == 0 {
+			log.Printf("found %d directory paths in file %s", len(list), *filter)
 		}
 		setPathFilter(list)
 	}