diff --git a/cake/console/cake.php b/cake/console/cake.php
index cae27bc5c..280516fa7 100644
--- a/cake/console/cake.php
+++ b/cake/console/cake.php
@@ -477,13 +477,14 @@ class ShellDispatcher {
  *
  * @param string $string String to output.
  * @param boolean $newline If true, the outputs gets an added newline.
+ * @return integer Returns the number of bytes output to stdout.
  * @access public
  */
 	function stdout($string, $newline = true) {
 		if ($newline) {
-			fwrite($this->stdout, $string . "\n");
+			return fwrite($this->stdout, $string . "\n");
 		} else {
-			fwrite($this->stdout, $string);
+			return fwrite($this->stdout, $string);
 		}
 	}
 
diff --git a/cake/console/libs/shell.php b/cake/console/libs/shell.php
index 246e312b4..fdba08f5c 100644
--- a/cake/console/libs/shell.php
+++ b/cake/console/libs/shell.php
@@ -370,13 +370,14 @@ class Shell extends Object {
  *
  * @param mixed $message A string or a an array of strings to output
  * @param integer $newlines Number of newlines to append
+ * @return integer Returns the number of bytes returned from writing to stdout.
  * @access public
  */
 	function out($message = null, $newlines = 1) {
 		if (is_array($message)) {
 			$message = implode($this->nl(), $message);
 		}
-		$this->Dispatch->stdout($message . $this->nl($newlines), false);
+		return $this->Dispatch->stdout($message . $this->nl($newlines), false);
 	}
 
 /**