diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 1106bc89da..d43e370ac2 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ Build-Depends:
 	libghc-dav-dev (>= 1.0) [amd64 i386 kfreebsd-amd64 kfreebsd-i386 powerpc],
 	libghc-quickcheck2-dev,
 	libghc-monad-control-dev (>= 0.3),
-	libghc-exceptions-dev,
+	libghc-exceptions-dev (>= 0.6),
 	libghc-transformers-dev,
 	libghc-unix-compat-dev,
 	libghc-dlist-dev,
diff --git a/git-annex.cabal b/git-annex.cabal
index 3b5e45929f..919eaa14ef 100644
--- a/git-annex.cabal
+++ b/git-annex.cabal
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ Executable git-annex
   Build-Depends: MissingH, hslogger, directory, filepath,
    containers, utf8-string, network (>= 2.0), mtl (>= 2),
    bytestring, old-locale, time, dataenc, SHA, process, json,
-   base (>= 4.5 && < 4.9), monad-control, exceptions (>= 0.5), transformers,
+   base (>= 4.5 && < 4.9), monad-control, exceptions (>= 0.6), transformers,
    IfElse, text, QuickCheck >= 2.1, bloomfilter, edit-distance, process,
    SafeSemaphore, uuid, random, dlist, unix-compat, async, stm (>= 2.3),
    data-default, case-insensitive, http-conduit, http-types