diff --git a/ament_clang_tidy/ament_clang_tidy/main.py b/ament_clang_tidy/ament_clang_tidy/main.py
index 5faa81425..fb0c11fe9 100755
--- a/ament_clang_tidy/ament_clang_tidy/main.py
+++ b/ament_clang_tidy/ament_clang_tidy/main.py
@@ -55,6 +55,13 @@ def main(argv=sys.argv[1:]):
         type=int,
         default=1,
         help='number of clang-tidy jobs to run in parallel')
+    parser.add_argument(
+        '--extra-arg',
+        type=str,
+        action='append',
+        dest='extra_arg',
+        default=None,
+        help='Additional argument to append to the compiler command line')
 
     # not using a file handle directly
     # in order to prevent leaving an empty file when something fails early
@@ -152,6 +159,9 @@ def invoke_clang_tidy(compilation_db_path):
             cmd.append('--quiet')
         if args.system_headers:
             cmd.append('--system-headers')
+        if args.extra_arg:
+            for arg in args.extra_arg:
+                cmd.append('--extra-arg=' + arg)
 
         def is_gtest_source(file_name):
             if file_name == 'gtest_main.cc' or file_name == 'gtest-all.cc' \
@@ -264,6 +274,9 @@ def start_subprocess(full_cmd):
         with open(args.xunit_file, 'w') as f:
             f.write(xml)
 
+    if output:
+        sys.exit(1)
+
 
 def find_executable(file_names):
     paths = os.getenv('PATH').split(os.path.pathsep)