diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6161929de3..a09ea0477d 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2013-2017 Intel, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2014-2017 Research Organization for Information Science
 #                         and Technology (RIST). All rights reserved.
-# Copyright (c) 2016      IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2016-2017 IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 # $COPYRIGHT$
 #
 # Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -1407,6 +1407,7 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([
     test/support/Makefile
     test/threads/Makefile
     test/util/Makefile
+    test/symbol_name/Makefile
 ])
 m4_ifdef([project_ompi], [AC_CONFIG_FILES([test/monitoring/Makefile])])
 m4_ifdef([project_ompi], [
diff --git a/test/Makefile.am b/test/Makefile.am
index 7eee672d46..f3793dd1bc 100644
--- a/test/Makefile.am
+++ b/test/Makefile.am
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2010      Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2015-2016 Research Organization for Information Science
 #                         and Technology (RIST). All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2017      IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.
 # $COPYRIGHT$
 #
 # Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -21,7 +22,7 @@
 #
 
 # support needs to be first for dependencies
-SUBDIRS = support asm class threads datatype util dss
+SUBDIRS = support asm class threads datatype util dss symbol_name
 if PROJECT_OMPI
 SUBDIRS += monitoring
 endif
diff --git a/test/symbol_name/Makefile.am b/test/symbol_name/Makefile.am
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7500c27133
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/symbol_name/Makefile.am
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2017      IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.
+# $COPYRIGHT$
+#
+# Additional copyrights may follow
+#
+# $HEADER$
+#
+
+# Note: the Jenkins tests on LANL-distcheck and travis-ci keep
+# failing when I write this Makefile.am in the "obvious" way.
+# The test ends up running in $PWD
+#     /path/to/openmpi-gitclone/_build/test/symbol_name/
+# while files like nmcheck_prefix and nmcheck_prefix.pl are in
+#     /path/to/openmpi-gitclone/test/symbol_name/
+# and can be located with the env var $srcdir
+#
+# I tried putting nmchec_prefix.pl in check_SCRIPTS and that does
+# cause a "make nmcheck_prefix.pl" step, but it then says there's
+# no rule to make that target.
+#
+# Since I don't know what is the "correct" way to access the extra file
+# nmcheck_prefix.pl, what I'm doing for now is using $srcdir to
+# find it.
+
+TESTS = nmcheck_prefix
+
+EXTRA_DIST = nmcheck_prefix nmcheck_prefix.pl
+
+AM_TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = MYBASE='$(top_builddir)'; OMPI_LIBMPI_NAME=@OMPI_LIBMPI_NAME@; export MYBASE OMPI_LIBMPI_NAME;
+
+export VERBOSE=yes
diff --git a/test/symbol_name/nmcheck_prefix b/test/symbol_name/nmcheck_prefix
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..23c5c4ef55
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/symbol_name/nmcheck_prefix
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# Copyright (c) 2017      IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.
+
+
+# if there's no perl, skip the test
+perl -v > /dev/null 2>&1
+if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then exit 77 ; fi
+
+# I wrote more in Makedefs.am about why I'm using ${srcdir} here. I suspect
+# there's a more correct way to set up automake so the file is available,
+# but nothing else has worked for me yet.
+
+perl ${srcdir}/nmcheck_prefix.pl
diff --git a/test/symbol_name/nmcheck_prefix.pl b/test/symbol_name/nmcheck_prefix.pl
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..f912c7c556
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/symbol_name/nmcheck_prefix.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,174 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+
+# Copyright (c) 2017      IBM Corporation. All rights reserved.
+
+sub main {
+    if (!$ENV{MYBASE}) {
+        print "Test expects env var MYBASE set to base dir\n";
+        print "(where ompi/ opal/ orte/ test/ etc live)\n";
+        print "And optionally OMPI_LIBMPI_NAME should be set\n";
+        print "if MPI is configured with some name other than\n";
+        print "\"mpi\" for that.\n";
+        exit -1;
+    }
+
+# env var MYBASE should be the top dir where ompi/ opal/ orte/ test/ etc live.
+# env var OMPI_LIBMPI_NAME should be @OMPI_LIBMPI_NAME@ from automake
+#
+# Most likely the libs we want to check are
+#     ompi/.libs/lib<mpi>.so
+#     ompi/mpi/fortran/mpif-h/.libs/lib<mpi>_mpifh.so
+#     ompi/mpi/fortran/use-mpi-tkr/.libs/lib<mpi>_usempi.so
+#     orte/.libs/libopen-rte.so
+#     opal/.libs/libopen-pal.so
+# but I hate to assume those are the locations, so I'll use 'find' and
+# test whatever ".so"s are found.
+
+    @libs = ();
+    $mpi = "mpi";
+    if ($ENV{OMPI_LIBMPI_NAME}) {
+        $mpi = $ENV{OMPI_LIBMPI_NAME};
+    }
+    for $name (
+        "lib${mpi}.so",
+        "lib${mpi}_mpifh.so",
+        "lib${mpi}_usempi.so",
+        "libopen-rte.so",
+        "libopen-pal.so" )
+    {
+        for $loc (split(/\n/, `find $ENV{MYBASE} -name $name`)) {
+            if ($loc !~ /openmpi-gitclone/) {
+                push @libs, $loc;
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    @mca_symbols = lookup_mca_symbols();
+
+    print "Checking for bad symbol names in the main libs:\n";
+    $isbad = 0;
+    for $lib (@libs) {
+        print "checking $lib\n";
+        check_lib_for_bad_exports($lib);
+    }
+    if ($isbad) { exit(-1); }
+}
+
+# Find libraries with names of the form  libmca_coll_basic.a etc
+# and presume those to be MCAs that are being built into libmpi.so etc
+# rather than the usual case where it becomes mca_coll_basic.so.
+#
+# When name pollution occurs in an MCA .so we don't care about it.
+# When it's an MCA built into libmpi.so we care a little, but aren't
+# going to make this testcase fail over it.
+sub lookup_mca_symbols {
+    my @list;
+    my $lib;
+
+    @list = ();
+    for $lib (split(/\n/, `find $ENV{MYBASE} -name libmca_[a-zA-Z0-9_-]*\\.a`))
+    {
+        if ($lib !~ /openmpi-gitclone/) {
+            print "NOTE: found static $lib\n";
+            push @list, get_nm($lib, 'all');
+        }
+    }
+
+    return @list;
+}
+
+sub check_lib_for_bad_exports {
+    my $lib = $_[0];
+    my @symbols;
+    my $s;
+
+    @symbols = get_nm($lib, 'all');
+
+    # grep to get rid of symbol prefixes that are considered acceptable,
+    # leaving behind anything bad:
+    @symbols = grep(!/^ompi_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^opal_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^orte_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^orted_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^oshmem_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^mpi_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^pmpi_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^pmix_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^pmix2x_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^PMI_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^PMI2_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^MPIR_/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^MPIX_/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^mpidbg_dll_locations$/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^mpimsgq_dll_locations$/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^ompit_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^ADIO_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^ADIOI_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^MPIO_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^MPIOI_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^MPIU_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^NBC_/i, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^mca_/, @symbols);
+
+    @symbols = grep(!/^_fini$/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^_init$/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^_edata$/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^_end$/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^__bss_start$/, @symbols);
+    @symbols = grep(!/^__malloc_initialize_hook$/, @symbols);
+
+    # The symbols can now be split into two groups: fatal and warning.
+    # The warnings will be for symbols that appear to be from MCAs that
+    # this build has placed into a main lib, but which would normally
+    # be segregated into some mca_*.so
+    # for the fatal ones.
+    @warning_symbols = @fatal_symbols = ();
+    if (scalar(@mca_symbols) > 0) {
+        %whash = ();
+        for $s (@mca_symbols) {
+            $whash{$s} = 1;
+        }
+        for $s (@symbols) {
+            if ($whash{$s}) {
+                push @warning_symbols, $s;
+            } else {
+                push @fatal_symbols, $s;
+            }
+        }
+    } else {
+        @fatal_symbols = @symbols;
+    }
+
+    for $s (@fatal_symbols) {
+        print "    [error]   $s\n";
+        $isbad = 1;
+    }
+    for $s (@warning_symbols) {
+        print "    [warning] $s \n";
+    }
+}
+
+# get_nm /path/to/some/libfoo.so <func|wfunc|all>
+
+sub get_nm {
+    my $lib = $_[0];
+    my $mode = $_[1];
+    my $pattern;
+    my $cmd;
+    my @tmp;
+
+    $pattern = " [TWBCDVR] ";
+    if ($mode eq 'func') { $pattern = " [T] "; }
+    if ($mode eq 'wfunc') { $pattern = " [W] "; }
+
+    $cmd = "nm $lib";
+    $cmd = "$cmd | grep \"$pattern\"";
+    $cmd = "$cmd | sed -e 's/  *\$//' -e 's/.* //'";
+
+    @tmp = split(/\n/, qx#$cmd#);
+    @tmp = sort(@tmp);
+
+    return(@tmp);
+}
+
+main();