diff --git a/src/etc/mklldeps.py b/src/etc/mklldeps.py
index 5b1abdf68a3d6..3b2cef3c9e1cb 100644
--- a/src/etc/mklldeps.py
+++ b/src/etc/mklldeps.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 f = open(sys.argv[1], 'wb')
 
 components = sys.argv[2].split(' ')
+components = [i for i in components if i]  # ignore extra whitespaces
 
 f.write("""// Copyright 2013 The Rust Project Developers. See the COPYRIGHT
 // file at the top-level directory of this distribution and at
@@ -51,6 +52,10 @@
     proc = subprocess.Popen(args, stdout = subprocess.PIPE)
     out, err = proc.communicate()
 
+    if err:
+        print("failed to run llconfig: args = `{}`".format(args))
+        sys.exit(1)
+
     for lib in out.strip().split(' '):
         lib = lib[2:] # chop of the leading '-l'
         f.write("#[link(name = \"" + lib + "\", kind = \"static\")]\n")
diff --git a/src/librustc/metadata/creader.rs b/src/librustc/metadata/creader.rs
index 955ba54a404fd..ec651b2c02ae2 100644
--- a/src/librustc/metadata/creader.rs
+++ b/src/librustc/metadata/creader.rs
@@ -219,7 +219,11 @@ fn visit_item(e: &Env, i: @ast::item) {
                                 @"foo"
                             }
                         };
-                        cstore::add_used_library(cstore, n.to_owned(), kind);
+                        if n.is_empty() {
+                            e.sess.span_err(m.span, "#[link(name = \"\")] given with empty name");
+                        } else {
+                            cstore::add_used_library(cstore, n.to_owned(), kind);
+                        }
                     }
                     None => {}
                 }
diff --git a/src/test/compile-fail/bad-extern-link-attrs.rs b/src/test/compile-fail/bad-extern-link-attrs.rs
index 0616da266021e..ff63d4b739aef 100644
--- a/src/test/compile-fail/bad-extern-link-attrs.rs
+++ b/src/test/compile-fail/bad-extern-link-attrs.rs
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 // except according to those terms.
 
 #[link()] //~ ERROR: specified without `name =
+#[link(name = "")] //~ ERROR: with empty name
 #[link(name = "foo")]
 #[link(name = "foo", kind = "bar")] //~ ERROR: unknown kind
 extern {}