diff --git a/python/pyspark/shell.py b/python/pyspark/shell.py
index b5fcf7092d93a..472c3cd4452f0 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/shell.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/shell.py
@@ -38,25 +38,13 @@
 SparkContext._ensure_initialized()
 
 try:
-    # Try to access HiveConf, it will raise exception if Hive is not added
-    conf = SparkConf()
-    if conf.get('spark.sql.catalogImplementation', 'hive').lower() == 'hive':
-        SparkContext._jvm.org.apache.hadoop.hive.conf.HiveConf()
-        spark = SparkSession.builder\
-            .enableHiveSupport()\
-            .getOrCreate()
-    else:
-        spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
-except py4j.protocol.Py4JError:
-    if conf.get('spark.sql.catalogImplementation', '').lower() == 'hive':
-        warnings.warn("Fall back to non-hive support because failing to access HiveConf, "
-                      "please make sure you build spark with hive")
-    spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
-except TypeError:
-    if conf.get('spark.sql.catalogImplementation', '').lower() == 'hive':
-        warnings.warn("Fall back to non-hive support because failing to access HiveConf, "
-                      "please make sure you build spark with hive")
-    spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
+    spark = SparkSession._create_shell_session()
+except Exception:
+    import sys
+    import traceback
+    warnings.warn("Failed to initialize Spark session.")
+    traceback.print_exc(file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(1)
 
 sc = spark.sparkContext
 sql = spark.sql
diff --git a/python/pyspark/sql/session.py b/python/pyspark/sql/session.py
index 13d6e2e53dbd0..a8930fbc7b268 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/sql/session.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/sql/session.py
@@ -547,6 +547,40 @@ def _create_from_pandas_with_arrow(self, pdf, schema, timezone):
         df._schema = schema
         return df
 
+    @staticmethod
+    def _create_shell_session():
+        """
+        Initialize a SparkSession for a pyspark shell session. This is called from shell.py
+        to make error handling simpler without needing to declare local variables in that
+        script, which would expose those to users.
+        """
+        import py4j
+        from pyspark.conf import SparkConf
+        from pyspark.context import SparkContext
+        try:
+            # Try to access HiveConf, it will raise exception if Hive is not added
+            conf = SparkConf()
+            if conf.get('spark.sql.catalogImplementation', 'hive').lower() == 'hive':
+                SparkContext._jvm.org.apache.hadoop.hive.conf.HiveConf()
+                return SparkSession.builder\
+                    .enableHiveSupport()\
+                    .getOrCreate()
+            else:
+                return SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
+        except py4j.protocol.Py4JError:
+            if conf.get('spark.sql.catalogImplementation', '').lower() == 'hive':
+                warnings.warn("Fall back to non-hive support because failing to access HiveConf, "
+                              "please make sure you build spark with hive")
+
+        try:
+            return SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
+        except TypeError:
+            if conf.get('spark.sql.catalogImplementation', '').lower() == 'hive':
+                warnings.warn("Fall back to non-hive support because failing to access HiveConf, "
+                              "please make sure you build spark with hive")
+
+        return SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
+
     @since(2.0)
     @ignore_unicode_prefix
     def createDataFrame(self, data, schema=None, samplingRatio=None, verifySchema=True):
diff --git a/repl/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/Main.scala b/repl/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/Main.scala
index cc76a703bdf8f..e4ddcef9772e4 100644
--- a/repl/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/Main.scala
+++ b/repl/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/repl/Main.scala
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ object Main extends Logging {
   var interp: SparkILoop = _
 
   private var hasErrors = false
+  private var isShellSession = false
 
   private def scalaOptionError(msg: String): Unit = {
     hasErrors = true
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ object Main extends Logging {
   }
 
   def main(args: Array[String]) {
+    isShellSession = true
     doMain(args, new SparkILoop)
   }
 
@@ -79,44 +81,50 @@ object Main extends Logging {
   }
 
   def createSparkSession(): SparkSession = {
-    val execUri = System.getenv("SPARK_EXECUTOR_URI")
-    conf.setIfMissing("spark.app.name", "Spark shell")
-    // SparkContext will detect this configuration and register it with the RpcEnv's
-    // file server, setting spark.repl.class.uri to the actual URI for executors to
-    // use. This is sort of ugly but since executors are started as part of SparkContext
-    // initialization in certain cases, there's an initialization order issue that prevents
-    // this from being set after SparkContext is instantiated.
-    conf.set("spark.repl.class.outputDir", outputDir.getAbsolutePath())
-    if (execUri != null) {
-      conf.set("spark.executor.uri", execUri)
-    }
-    if (System.getenv("SPARK_HOME") != null) {
-      conf.setSparkHome(System.getenv("SPARK_HOME"))
-    }
+    try {
+      val execUri = System.getenv("SPARK_EXECUTOR_URI")
+      conf.setIfMissing("spark.app.name", "Spark shell")
+      // SparkContext will detect this configuration and register it with the RpcEnv's
+      // file server, setting spark.repl.class.uri to the actual URI for executors to
+      // use. This is sort of ugly but since executors are started as part of SparkContext
+      // initialization in certain cases, there's an initialization order issue that prevents
+      // this from being set after SparkContext is instantiated.
+      conf.set("spark.repl.class.outputDir", outputDir.getAbsolutePath())
+      if (execUri != null) {
+        conf.set("spark.executor.uri", execUri)
+      }
+      if (System.getenv("SPARK_HOME") != null) {
+        conf.setSparkHome(System.getenv("SPARK_HOME"))
+      }
 
-    val builder = SparkSession.builder.config(conf)
-    if (conf.get(CATALOG_IMPLEMENTATION.key, "hive").toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT) == "hive") {
-      if (SparkSession.hiveClassesArePresent) {
-        // In the case that the property is not set at all, builder's config
-        // does not have this value set to 'hive' yet. The original default
-        // behavior is that when there are hive classes, we use hive catalog.
-        sparkSession = builder.enableHiveSupport().getOrCreate()
-        logInfo("Created Spark session with Hive support")
+      val builder = SparkSession.builder.config(conf)
+      if (conf.get(CATALOG_IMPLEMENTATION.key, "hive").toLowerCase(Locale.ROOT) == "hive") {
+        if (SparkSession.hiveClassesArePresent) {
+          // In the case that the property is not set at all, builder's config
+          // does not have this value set to 'hive' yet. The original default
+          // behavior is that when there are hive classes, we use hive catalog.
+          sparkSession = builder.enableHiveSupport().getOrCreate()
+          logInfo("Created Spark session with Hive support")
+        } else {
+          // Need to change it back to 'in-memory' if no hive classes are found
+          // in the case that the property is set to hive in spark-defaults.conf
+          builder.config(CATALOG_IMPLEMENTATION.key, "in-memory")
+          sparkSession = builder.getOrCreate()
+          logInfo("Created Spark session")
+        }
       } else {
-        // Need to change it back to 'in-memory' if no hive classes are found
-        // in the case that the property is set to hive in spark-defaults.conf
-        builder.config(CATALOG_IMPLEMENTATION.key, "in-memory")
+        // In the case that the property is set but not to 'hive', the internal
+        // default is 'in-memory'. So the sparkSession will use in-memory catalog.
         sparkSession = builder.getOrCreate()
         logInfo("Created Spark session")
       }
-    } else {
-      // In the case that the property is set but not to 'hive', the internal
-      // default is 'in-memory'. So the sparkSession will use in-memory catalog.
-      sparkSession = builder.getOrCreate()
-      logInfo("Created Spark session")
+      sparkContext = sparkSession.sparkContext
+      sparkSession
+    } catch {
+      case e: Exception if isShellSession =>
+        logError("Failed to initialize Spark session.", e)
+        sys.exit(1)
     }
-    sparkContext = sparkSession.sparkContext
-    sparkSession
   }
 
 }