diff --git a/doc/CONFIGURATION.md b/doc/CONFIGURATION.md
index c461689..0ec994e 100644
--- a/doc/CONFIGURATION.md
+++ b/doc/CONFIGURATION.md
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@ when installing aprsc from a binary package.
     and debugging, or "syslog" for syslogd)
  *  `-r logs` - log file directory, log files are placed in /opt/aprsc/logs
  *  `-c etc/aprsc.conf` - configuration file location
+ *  `-y` - try to parse the configuration, report success or error,
+    quit after reading configuration. Useful for validating your
+    configuration before restarting aprsc.
 
 Since the daemon does a [chroot][chroot] to /opt/aprsc, all paths are
 relative to that directory and the daemon cannot access any files outside
diff --git a/src/aprsc.c b/src/aprsc.c
index d2cdf65..c0b4f3d 100644
--- a/src/aprsc.c
+++ b/src/aprsc.c
@@ -9,7 +9,8 @@
  */
 
 #define HELPS	"Usage: aprsc [-t <chrootdir>] [-u <setuid user>] [-c <cfgfile>] [-f (fork)]\n" \
-	" [-n <logname>] [-e <loglevel>] [-o <logdest>] [-r <logdir>] [-h (help)]\n"
+	" [-n <logname>] [-e <loglevel>] [-o <logdest>] [-r <logdir>]\n" \
+	" [-y (try config)] [-h (help)]\n"
 
 #include <pthread.h>
 #include <semaphore.h>
@@ -60,6 +61,7 @@ int reopen_logs;		// should we reopen log files now?
 int reconfiguring;		// should we reconfigure now?
 int fileno_limit = -1;
 int dbdump_at_exit;
+int quit_after_config;
 int want_dbdump;
 
 /* random instance ID, alphanumeric low-case */
@@ -77,7 +79,7 @@ void parse_cmdline(int argc, char *argv[])
 	int s, i;
 	int failed = 0;
 	
-	while ((s = getopt(argc, argv, "c:ft:u:n:r:d:De:o:?h")) != -1) {
+	while ((s = getopt(argc, argv, "c:ft:u:n:r:d:Dye:o:?h")) != -1) {
 	switch (s) {
 		case 'c':
 			cfgfile = hstrdup(optarg);
@@ -110,6 +112,9 @@ void parse_cmdline(int argc, char *argv[])
 		case 'D':
 			dbdump_at_exit = 1;
 			break;
+		case 'y':
+			quit_after_config = 1;
+			break;
 		case 'e':
 			i = pick_loglevel(optarg, log_levelnames);
 			if (i > -1)
@@ -144,6 +149,10 @@ void parse_cmdline(int argc, char *argv[])
 		fputs(HELPS, stderr);
 		exit(failed);
 	}
+	
+	if (quit_after_config) {
+		fork_a_daemon = 0;
+	}
 }
 
 /*
@@ -784,7 +793,8 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	
 	/* open syslog, write an initial log message and read configuration */
 	open_log(logname, 0);
-	hlog(LOG_NOTICE, "Starting up version %s, instance id %s ...", version_build, instance_id);
+	if (!quit_after_config)
+		hlog(LOG_NOTICE, "Starting up version %s, instance id %s ...", version_build, instance_id);
 	
 	int orig_log_dest = log_dest;
 	log_dest |= L_STDERR;
@@ -794,6 +804,9 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		exit(1);
 	}
 	
+	if (quit_after_config)
+		exit(0);
+	
 	/* adjust file limits as requested, not after every reconfigure
 	 * but only at startup - we won't have root privileges available
 	 * later.