diff --git a/macros.pybytecompile b/macros.pybytecompile
index f5439cf..a41b3a2 100644
--- a/macros.pybytecompile
+++ b/macros.pybytecompile
@@ -3,25 +3,17 @@
 # Python's compile_all module only works on directories, and requires a max
 # recursion depth
 
-# Note that the py_byte_compile macro should work for all Python versions
-# Which unfortunately makes the definition more complicated than it should be
+# Usage:
+#    %py_byte_compile <interpereter> <path>
+# Example:
+#    %py_byte_compile %{__python3} %{buildroot}%{_datadir}/spam/plugins/
+
+# This will terminate build on SyntaxErrors, if you want to avoid that,
+# use it in a subshell like this:
+#    (%{py_byte_compile <interpereter> <path>}) || :
 
 %py_byte_compile()\
-py2_byte_compile () {\
-    python_binary="%1"\
-    bytecode_compilation_path="%2"\
-    find $bytecode_compilation_path -type f -a -name "*.py" -print0 | xargs -0 $python_binary -c 'import py_compile, sys; [py_compile.compile(f, dfile=f.partition("$RPM_BUILD_ROOT")[2]) for f in sys.argv[1:]]' || :\
-    find $bytecode_compilation_path -type f -a -name "*.py" -print0 | xargs -0 $python_binary -O -c 'import py_compile, sys; [py_compile.compile(f, dfile=f.partition("$RPM_BUILD_ROOT")[2]) for f in sys.argv[1:]]' || :\
-}\
-\
-py3_byte_compile () {\
-    python_binary="%1"\
-    bytecode_compilation_path="%2"\
-    find $bytecode_compilation_path -type f -a -name "*.py" -print0 | xargs -0 $python_binary -O -c 'import py_compile, sys; [py_compile.compile(f, dfile=f.partition("$RPM_BUILD_ROOT")[2], optimize=opt) for opt in range(2) for f in sys.argv[1:]]' || :\
-}\
-\
-# Get version without a dot (36 instead of 3.6), bash doesn't compare floats well \
-python_version=$(%1 -c "import sys; sys.stdout.write('{0.major}{0.minor}'.format(sys.version_info))") \
-# The bytecompilation syntax has changed between Python 3.4 and Python 3.5, so for 3.4 and earlier we use the "Python 2" syntax \
-[ "$python_version" -ge 35 ] && py3_byte_compile "%1" "%2" || py2_byte_compile "%1" "%2" \
-%{nil}
+python_binary="%1"\
+bytecode_compilation_path="%2"\
+find $bytecode_compilation_path -type f -a -name "*.py" -print0 | xargs -0 $python_binary -O -m py_compile\
+find $bytecode_compilation_path -type f -a -name "*.py" -print0 | xargs -0 $python_binary -m py_compile
diff --git a/python-rpm-macros.spec b/python-rpm-macros.spec
index bd849d7..e3d2d85 100644
--- a/python-rpm-macros.spec
+++ b/python-rpm-macros.spec
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Name:           python-rpm-macros
 Version:        3
-Release:        36%{?dist}
+Release:        37%{?dist}
 Summary:        The unversioned Python RPM macros
 
 License:        MIT
@@ -71,6 +71,9 @@ install -m 644 %{SOURCE0} %{SOURCE1} %{SOURCE2} %{SOURCE3} %{SOURCE4} \
 
 
 %changelog
+* Wed Aug 15 2018 Miro Hrončok <mhroncok@redhat.com> - 3-37
+- Make %%py_byte_compile terminate build on SyntaxErrors (#1616219)
+
 * Wed Aug 15 2018 Miro Hrončok <mhroncok@redhat.com> - 3-36
 - Make %%py_build wokr if %%__python is defined to custom value