diff --git a/usr.sbin/pkg_install/version/pkg_version.pl b/usr.sbin/pkg_install/version/pkg_version.pl
index 633e1078657..3a575107354 100755
--- a/usr.sbin/pkg_install/version/pkg_version.pl
+++ b/usr.sbin/pkg_install/version/pkg_version.pl
@@ -324,6 +324,20 @@ while (<INDEX>) {
 }
 close INDEX;
 
+#
+# If we're doing commands output, cripple the output so that users
+# can't just pipe the output to sh(1) and expect this to work.
+#
+if ($ShowCommandsFlag) {
+    print<<EOF
+echo "The commands output of pkg_version cannot be executed without editing."
+echo "You MUST save this output to a file and then edit it, taking into"
+echo "account package dependencies and the fact that some packages cannot"
+echo "or should not be upgraded." 
+exit 1
+EOF
+}
+
 #
 # Produce reports
 #