diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py
index be0bfaae256..e4ea3f5ac0b 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py
@@ -1,20 +1,7 @@
 # (c) 2012, Michael DeHaan <michael.dehaan@gmail.com>
 # (c) 2015, 2017 Toshio Kuratomi <tkuratomi@ansible.com>
-#
-# This file is part of Ansible
-#
-# Ansible is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
-# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
-# (at your option) any later version.
-#
-# Ansible is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
-# GNU General Public License for more details.
-#
-# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-# along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+# GNU General Public License v3.0+ (see COPYING or https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt)
+
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 __metaclass__ = type
 
@@ -78,6 +65,10 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
 
         executable = C.DEFAULT_EXECUTABLE.split()[0] if C.DEFAULT_EXECUTABLE else None
 
+        if not os.path.exists(to_bytes(executable, errors='surrogate_or_strict')):
+            raise AnsibleError("failed to find the executable specified %s."
+                               " Please verify if the executable exists and re-try." % executable)
+
         display.vvv(u"EXEC {0}".format(to_text(cmd)), host=self._play_context.remote_addr)
         display.debug("opening command with Popen()")
 
@@ -152,7 +143,7 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
             raise AnsibleError("failed to transfer file to {0}: {1}".format(to_native(out_path), to_native(e)))
 
     def fetch_file(self, in_path, out_path):
-        ''' fetch a file from local to local -- for copatibility '''
+        ''' fetch a file from local to local -- for compatibility '''
 
         super(Connection, self).fetch_file(in_path, out_path)