diff --git a/.dir-locals.el b/.dir-locals.el
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b28057
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.dir-locals.el
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+;; emacs local configuration settings for libpsl source
+;; surmised by dkg on 2014-03-21 14:35:49-0400
+
+((c-mode
+  (indent-tabs-mode . t)
+  (tab-width . 4)
+  (c-basic-offset . 4)
+  (c-file-style . "linux"))
+ )
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de162c9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+*~
+Makefile
+Makefile.in
+aclocal.m4
+autom4te.cache/
+compile
+config.guess
+config.h
+config.h.in
+config.log
+config.rpath
+config.status
+config.sub
+configure
+data/Makefile
+data/Makefile.in
+depcomp
+include/Makefile
+include/Makefile.in
+install-sh
+libpsl-*.pc
+libtool
+ltmain.sh
+m4/
+missing
+po/Makefile
+po/Makefile.in
+po/Makefile.in.in
+po/Makevars.template
+po/POTFILES
+po/Rules-quot
+po/boldquot.sed
+po/en@boldquot.header
+po/en@quot.header
+po/insert-header.sin
+po/psl.pot
+po/quot.sed
+po/remove-potcdate.sin
+po/remove-potcdate.sed
+po/stamp-po
+src/.deps/
+src/.libs/
+src/Makefile
+src/Makefile.in
+src/libpsl-*.la
+src/libpsl_*_la-psl.lo
+stamp-h1
+test-driver
+tests/.deps/
+tests/Makefile
+tests/Makefile.in
+tests/test-is-tld
+tests/test-is-tld.log
+tests/test-is-tld.o
+tests/test-is-tld.trs
+tests/test-suite.log
+psl-*.tar.gz
diff --git a/include/libpsl.h b/include/libpsl.h
index fd2a404..9a7c934 100644
--- a/include/libpsl.h
+++ b/include/libpsl.h
@@ -55,6 +55,14 @@ psl_ctx_t *
 int
 	psl_is_tld(const psl_ctx_t *psl, const char *domain);
 
+/* does not include exceptions */
+int
+	psl_suffix_count(const psl_ctx_t *psl);
+/* just counts exceptions */
+int
+	psl_suffix_exception_count(const psl_ctx_t *psl);
+
+
 PSL_END_DECLS
 
 #endif /* _LIBPSL_LIBPSL_H */
diff --git a/src/psl.c b/src/psl.c
index c011137..88ccc9e 100644
--- a/src/psl.c
+++ b/src/psl.c
@@ -275,13 +275,13 @@ psl_ctx_t *psl_load_file(const char *fname)
 	if (!(psl = calloc(1, sizeof(psl_ctx_t))))
 		return NULL;
 
-	// as of 02.11.2012, the list at http://publicsuffix.org/list/ contains ~6000 rules and 40 exceptions.
-	// as of 19.02.2014, the list at http://publicsuffix.org/list/ contains ~6500 rules and 19 exceptions.
-	psl->suffixes = _vector_alloc(8*1024, _suffix_compare);
-	psl->suffix_exceptions = _vector_alloc(64, _suffix_compare);
-
 	if ((fp = fopen(fname, "r"))) {
-		while ((linep = fgets(&buf, sizeof(buf), fp))) {
+		// as of 02.11.2012, the list at http://publicsuffix.org/list/ contains ~6000 rules and 40 exceptions.
+		// as of 19.02.2014, the list at http://publicsuffix.org/list/ contains ~6500 rules and 19 exceptions.
+		psl->suffixes = _vector_alloc(8*1024, _suffix_compare);
+		psl->suffix_exceptions = _vector_alloc(64, _suffix_compare);
+
+		while ((linep = fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), fp))) {
 			while (isspace(*linep)) linep++; // ignore leading whitespace
 			if (!*linep) continue; // skip empty lines
 
@@ -312,14 +312,27 @@ psl_ctx_t *psl_load_file(const char *fname)
 		_vector_sort(psl->suffix_exceptions);
 		_vector_sort(psl->suffixes);
 
-		printf("loaded %d (%d/%d) suffixes\n", nsuffixes, psl->suffixes->cur, psl->suffix_exceptions->cur);
-
-	} else
-		fprintf(stderr, _("Failed to open PSL file '%s'\n"), fname);
+	} else {
+		free(psl);
+		return NULL;
+	}
 
 	return psl;
 }
 
+
+/* does not include exceptions */
+int psl_suffix_count(const psl_ctx_t *psl)
+{
+	return psl->suffixes->cur;
+}
+/* just counts exceptions */
+int psl_suffix_exception_count(const psl_ctx_t *psl)
+{
+	return psl->suffix_exceptions->cur;
+}
+
+
 void psl_free(psl_ctx_t **psl)
 {
 	if (psl && *psl) {
diff --git a/tests/test-is-tld.c b/tests/test-is-tld.c
index 0f63b9b..1868af0 100644
--- a/tests/test-is-tld.c
+++ b/tests/test-is-tld.c
@@ -64,6 +64,9 @@ static void test_psl(void)
 
 	psl = psl_load_file(DATADIR "/effective_tld_names.dat");
 
+        printf("loaded %d suffixes and %d exceptions\n", psl_suffix_count(psl), psl_suffix_exception_count(psl));
+
+
 	for (it = 0; it < countof(test_data); it++) {
 		const struct test_data *t = &test_data[it];
 		int result = psl_is_tld(psl, t->domain);