diff --git a/IPython/testing/tests/test_tools.py b/IPython/testing/tests/test_tools.py
index 5226c8c..3c79ec9 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/tests/test_tools.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/tests/test_tools.py
@@ -88,3 +88,27 @@ class TestAssertPrints(unittest.TestCase):
                 print b"ghi"
         
         self.assertRaises(AssertionError, func)
+
+
+class Test_ipexec_validate(unittest.TestCase, tt.TempFileMixin):
+    def test_main_path(self):
+        """Test with only stdout results.
+        """
+        self.mktmp("print('A')\n"
+                   "print('B')\n"
+                   )
+        out = "A\nB"
+        tt.ipexec_validate(self.fname, out)
+
+    def test_exception_path(self):
+        """Test exception path in exception_validate.
+        """
+        self.mktmp("from __future__ import print_function\n"
+                   "import sys\n"
+                   "print('A')\n"
+                   "print('B')\n"
+                   "print('C', file=sys.stderr)\n"
+                   "print('D', file=sys.stderr)\n"
+                   )
+        out = "A\nB"
+        tt.ipexec_validate(self.fname, expected_out=out, expected_err="C\nD")
diff --git a/IPython/testing/tools.py b/IPython/testing/tools.py
index d1c7c43..2b47f55 100644
--- a/IPython/testing/tools.py
+++ b/IPython/testing/tools.py
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ def ipexec_validate(fname, expected_out, expected_err='',
     # more informative than simply having an empty stdout.
     if err:
         if expected_err:
-            nt.assert_equal(err.strip(), expected_err.strip())
+            nt.assert_equal("\n".join(err.strip().splitlines()), "\n".join(expected_err.strip().splitlines()))
         else:
             raise ValueError('Running file %r produced error: %r' %
                              (fname, err))