diff --git a/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand.java b/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand.java
index e45086a60a..c553539331 100644
--- a/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand.java
+++ b/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand.java
@@ -48,6 +48,12 @@ public abstract class AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand<C extends AbstractConfigurat
             defaultValue = "true", negatable = true)
     protected boolean failOnViolation;
 
+    @Option(names = "--no-fail-on-processing-error",
+            description = "By default PMD exits with status 5 if processing errors or violations are found. "
+                    + "Disable this option with '--no-fail-on-processing-error' to exit with 0 instead and just write the report.",
+            defaultValue = "true", negatable = true)
+    protected boolean failOnProcessingError;
+
     protected List<Path> relativizeRootPaths;
 
     @Option(names = { "--relativize-paths-with", "-z"}, description = "Path relative to which directories are rendered in the report. "
diff --git a/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/CpdCommand.java b/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/CpdCommand.java
index f629de248c..b949de739c 100644
--- a/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/CpdCommand.java
+++ b/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/CpdCommand.java
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ public class CpdCommand extends AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand<CPDConfiguration>
             configuration.addRelativizeRoots(relativizeRootPaths);
         }
         configuration.setFailOnViolation(failOnViolation);
+        configuration.setFailOnProcessingError(failOnProcessingError);
         configuration.setInputFilePath(fileListPath);
         if (inputPaths != null) {
             configuration.setInputPathList(new ArrayList<>(inputPaths));
@@ -134,7 +135,7 @@ public class CpdCommand extends AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand<CPDConfiguration>
             cpd.performAnalysis(report -> hasViolations.setValue(!report.getMatches().isEmpty()));
 
             boolean hasProcessingErrors = configuration.getReporter().numErrors() > 0;
-            if (hasProcessingErrors) {
+            if (hasProcessingErrors && configuration.isFailOnProcessingError()) {
                 return CliExitCode.VIOLATIONS_OR_PROCESSING_ERRORS;
             }
 
diff --git a/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/PmdCommand.java b/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/PmdCommand.java
index 4e15aa0f84..547feac371 100644
--- a/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/PmdCommand.java
+++ b/pmd-cli/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/commands/internal/PmdCommand.java
@@ -270,6 +270,7 @@ public class PmdCommand extends AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand<PMDConfiguration>
         configuration.setSuppressMarker(suppressMarker);
         configuration.setThreads(threads);
         configuration.setFailOnViolation(failOnViolation);
+        configuration.setFailOnProcessingError(failOnProcessingError);
         configuration.setAnalysisCacheLocation(cacheLocation != null ? cacheLocation.toString() : null);
         configuration.setIgnoreIncrementalAnalysis(noCache);
 
@@ -330,7 +331,7 @@ public class PmdCommand extends AbstractAnalysisPmdSubcommand<PMDConfiguration>
                 if (pmdReporter.numErrors() > 0) {
                     // processing errors are ignored
                     return CliExitCode.ERROR;
-                } else if (stats.getNumErrors() > 0) {
+                } else if (stats.getNumErrors() > 0 && configuration.isFailOnProcessingError()) {
                     return CliExitCode.VIOLATIONS_OR_PROCESSING_ERRORS;
                 } else if (stats.getNumViolations() > 0 && configuration.isFailOnViolation()) {
                     return CliExitCode.VIOLATIONS_FOUND;
diff --git a/pmd-cli/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/CpdCliTest.java b/pmd-cli/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/CpdCliTest.java
index 22004ac5d3..6597b4c414 100644
--- a/pmd-cli/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/CpdCliTest.java
+++ b/pmd-cli/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/CpdCliTest.java
@@ -244,6 +244,19 @@ class CpdCliTest extends BaseCliTest {
                 });
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void testExitCodeWithLexicalErrorsNoFail() throws Exception {
+        runCli(OK,
+                "--minimum-tokens", "10",
+                "-d", Paths.get(BASE_RES_PATH, "badandgood", "BadFile.java").toString(),
+                "--format", "text",
+                "--no-fail-on-processing-error")
+                .verify(r -> {
+                    r.checkStdErr(containsPattern("Error while tokenizing: Lexical error in file '.*?BadFile\\.java'"));
+                    r.checkStdOut(emptyString());
+                });
+    }
+
     @Test
     void testExitCodeWithLexicalErrorsAndSkipLexical() throws Exception {
         runCli(VIOLATIONS_OR_PROCESSING_ERRORS,
diff --git a/pmd-cli/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/PmdCliTest.java b/pmd-cli/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/PmdCliTest.java
index 275da2b43b..36a19974a5 100644
--- a/pmd-cli/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/PmdCliTest.java
+++ b/pmd-cli/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cli/PmdCliTest.java
@@ -329,6 +329,17 @@ class PmdCliTest extends BaseCliTest {
             });
     }
 
+    @Test
+    void exitStatusWithProcessingErrorsNoFail() throws Exception {
+        runCli(OK, "--use-version", "dummy-parserThrows",
+                "-d", srcDir.toString(), "-f", "text", "-R", RULESET_WITH_VIOLATION,
+                "--no-fail-on-processing-error")
+            .verify(r -> {
+                r.checkStdOut(containsString("someSource.dummy\t-\tParseException: Parse exception: ohio"));
+                r.checkStdErr(containsString("An error occurred while executing PMD."));
+            });
+    }
+
     @Test
     void testZipFileAsSource() throws Exception {
         Path zipArchive = createTemporaryZipArchive("sources.zip");
diff --git a/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/AbstractConfiguration.java b/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/AbstractConfiguration.java
index f79609ad9c..6d737ec219 100644
--- a/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/AbstractConfiguration.java
+++ b/pmd-core/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/AbstractConfiguration.java
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ public abstract class AbstractConfiguration {
     private Path ignoreFilePath;
     private List<Path> excludes = new ArrayList<>();
     private boolean collectRecursive = true;
+    private boolean failOnProcessingError = true;
 
 
     protected AbstractConfiguration(LanguageRegistry languageRegistry, PmdReporter messageReporter) {
@@ -377,4 +378,12 @@ public abstract class AbstractConfiguration {
     public void collectFilesRecursively(boolean collectRecursive) {
         this.collectRecursive = collectRecursive;
     }
+
+    public boolean isFailOnProcessingError() {
+        return failOnProcessingError;
+    }
+
+    public void setFailOnProcessingError(boolean failOnProcessingError) {
+        this.failOnProcessingError = failOnProcessingError;
+    }
 }