diff --git a/buildcore.sh b/buildcore.sh
index dcc5147c6..621690849 100755
--- a/buildcore.sh
+++ b/buildcore.sh
@@ -423,6 +423,10 @@ EOF
 #!/bin/sh
 cd `dirname $0`
 REPOFILE=`basename xCAT-*.repo`
+if [[ $REPOFILE == "xCAT-*.repo" ]]; then 
+    echo "ERROR: For xcat-dep, please execute $0 in the correct <os>/<arch> subdirectory"
+    exit 1
+fi
 sed -e 's|baseurl=.*|baseurl=file://'"`pwd`"'|' $REPOFILE | sed -e 's|gpgkey=.*|gpgkey=file://'"`pwd`"'/repodata/repomd.xml.key|' > /etc/yum.repos.d/$REPOFILE
 cd -
 EOF2