diff --git a/src/bootstrap/sanity.rs b/src/bootstrap/sanity.rs
index bc275b7fc745c2b903aca80eec1cc71b5d757345..a8b43ad3c3080f7e015eb0508a293f599b49ab91 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/sanity.rs
+++ b/src/bootstrap/sanity.rs
@@ -21,9 +21,10 @@
 use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::env;
 use std::ffi::{OsString, OsStr};
-use std::fs;
-use std::process::Command;
+use std::fs::{self, File};
+use std::io::Read;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
+use std::process::Command;
 
 use build_helper::output;
 
@@ -234,4 +235,14 @@ pub fn check(build: &mut Build) {
     if let Some(ref s) = build.config.ccache {
         cmd_finder.must_have(s);
     }
+
+    if build.config.channel == "stable" {
+        let mut stage0 = String::new();
+        t!(t!(File::open(build.src.join("src/stage0.txt")))
+            .read_to_string(&mut stage0));
+        if stage0.contains("\ndev:") {
+            panic!("bootstrapping from a dev compiler in a stable release, but \
+                    should only be bootstrapping from a released compiler!");
+        }
+    }
 }