diff --git a/src/system/libroot/posix/Jamfile b/src/system/libroot/posix/Jamfile
index 2079067016..6aa077ab8a 100644
--- a/src/system/libroot/posix/Jamfile
+++ b/src/system/libroot/posix/Jamfile
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ for architectureObject in [ MultiArchSubDirSetup ] {
 			PWD_BACKEND = pwd.cpp grp.cpp shadow.cpp user_group_common.cpp ;
 		}
 		MergeObject <$(architecture)>posix_main.o :
-			assert.c
+			assert.cpp
 			dlfcn.c
 			dirent.c
 			errno.c
diff --git a/src/system/libroot/posix/assert.c b/src/system/libroot/posix/assert.cpp
similarity index 55%
rename from src/system/libroot/posix/assert.c
rename to src/system/libroot/posix/assert.cpp
index c840b54bdd..851ca17bf7 100644
--- a/src/system/libroot/posix/assert.c
+++ b/src/system/libroot/posix/assert.cpp
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 /*
  * Copyright 2004, Axel Dörfler, axeld@pinc-software.de. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright 2019, Haiku, Inc. All rights reserved.
  * Distributed under the terms of the MIT License.
  */
 
@@ -10,6 +11,7 @@
 #include <OS.h>
 
 #include <assert.h>
+#include <signal.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <string.h>
 
@@ -18,11 +20,19 @@ extern char* __progname;
 
 
 void
-__assert_fail(const char *assertion, const char* file, unsigned int line,
+__assert_fail(const char* assertion, const char* file, unsigned int line,
 	const char* function)
 {
 	fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s:%d:%s: %s\n", __progname, file, line, function,
 		assertion);
+
+	// If there's no handler installed for SIGABRT, call debugger().
+	struct sigaction signalAction;
+	if (sigaction(SIGABRT, NULL, &signalAction) == 0
+			&& signalAction.sa_handler == SIG_DFL) {
+		debugger(assertion);
+	}
+
 	abort();
 }
 
@@ -31,7 +41,5 @@ void
 __assert_perror_fail(int error, const char* file, unsigned int line,
 	const char* function)
 {
-	fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s:%d:%s: %s\n", __progname, file, line, function,
-		strerror(error));
-	abort();
+	__assert_fail(strerror(error), file, line, function);
 }