diff --git a/ci/base-tests.sh b/ci/base-tests.sh
index 64214e3be..d67541f7d 100755
--- a/ci/base-tests.sh
+++ b/ci/base-tests.sh
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ export CARGO_TARGET_DIR=`pwd`/target/
 
 # Perform various checks for lint registration
 ./util/dev update_lints --check
+./util/dev --limit-stderr-length
 cargo +nightly fmt --all -- --check
 
 # Check running clippy-driver without cargo
diff --git a/clippy_dev/src/main.rs b/clippy_dev/src/main.rs
index 3f21b9dee..45d4d13ed 100644
--- a/clippy_dev/src/main.rs
+++ b/clippy_dev/src/main.rs
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@ extern crate clap;
 extern crate clippy_dev;
 extern crate regex;
 
-use clap::{App, AppSettings, Arg, SubCommand};
+use clap::{App, Arg, SubCommand};
 use clippy_dev::*;
+mod stderr_length_check;
 
 #[derive(PartialEq)]
 enum UpdateMode {
@@ -13,7 +14,6 @@ enum UpdateMode {
 
 fn main() {
     let matches = App::new("Clippy developer tooling")
-        .setting(AppSettings::SubcommandRequiredElseHelp)
         .subcommand(
             SubCommand::with_name("update_lints")
                 .about("Updates lint registration and information from the source code")
@@ -36,8 +36,16 @@ fn main() {
                         .help("Checks that util/dev update_lints has been run. Used on CI."),
                 ),
         )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("limit-stderr-length")
+                .long("limit-stderr-length")
+                .help("Ensures that stderr files do not grow longer than a certain amount of lines."),
+        )
         .get_matches();
 
+    if matches.is_present("limit-stderr-length") {
+        stderr_length_check::check();
+    }
     if let Some(matches) = matches.subcommand_matches("update_lints") {
         if matches.is_present("print-only") {
             print_lints();
diff --git a/clippy_dev/src/stderr_length_check.rs b/clippy_dev/src/stderr_length_check.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9222ed841
--- /dev/null
+++ b/clippy_dev/src/stderr_length_check.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+use std::ffi::OsStr;
+use walkdir::WalkDir;
+
+use std::fs::File;
+use std::io::prelude::*;
+
+// The maximum length allowed for stderr files.
+//
+// We limit this because small files are easier to deal with than bigger files.
+const LIMIT: usize = 320;
+
+pub fn check() {
+    let stderr_files = stderr_files();
+    let exceeding_files = exceeding_stderr_files(stderr_files);
+
+    if !exceeding_files.is_empty() {
+        println!("Error: stderr files exceeding limit of {} lines:", LIMIT);
+        for path in exceeding_files {
+            println!("{}", path);
+        }
+        std::process::exit(1);
+    }
+}
+
+fn exceeding_stderr_files(files: impl Iterator<Item = walkdir::DirEntry>) -> Vec<String> {
+    files
+        .filter_map(|file| {
+            let path = file.path().to_str().expect("Could not convert path to str").to_string();
+            let linecount = count_linenumbers(&path);
+            if linecount > LIMIT {
+                Some(path)
+            } else {
+                None
+            }
+        })
+        .collect()
+}
+
+fn stderr_files() -> impl Iterator<Item = walkdir::DirEntry> {
+    // We use `WalkDir` instead of `fs::read_dir` here in order to recurse into subdirectories.
+    WalkDir::new("../tests/ui")
+        .into_iter()
+        .filter_map(std::result::Result::ok)
+        .filter(|f| f.path().extension() == Some(OsStr::new("stderr")))
+}
+
+fn count_linenumbers(filepath: &str) -> usize {
+    if let Ok(mut file) = File::open(filepath) {
+        let mut content = String::new();
+        file.read_to_string(&mut content).expect("Failed to read file?");
+        content.lines().count()
+    } else {
+        0
+    }
+}