diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index b204bb0b2f5..c1b91fd75fe 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ script:
  - cargo build --features debugging
  - cargo test --features debugging
  - SYSROOT=~/rust cargo install
- - cargo clippy --lib -- -D clippy
+ - cargo clippy -- -D clippy
+ - cd clippy_lints && cargo clippy -- -D clippy && cd ..
 
 after_success:
 # only test regex_macros if it compiles
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 672b9d7ef94..828857701d5 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -32,12 +32,12 @@ quine-mc_cluskey = "0.2.2"
 # begin automatic update
 clippy_lints = { version = "0.0.70", path = "clippy_lints" }
 # end automatic update
+rustc-serialize = "0.3"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 compiletest_rs = "0.1.0"
 lazy_static = "0.1.15"
 regex = "0.1.56"
-rustc-serialize = "0.3"
 
 [features]
 debugging = []
diff --git a/clippy_lints/Cargo.toml b/clippy_lints/Cargo.toml
index aa994cd7259..c309b7a63e2 100644
--- a/clippy_lints/Cargo.toml
+++ b/clippy_lints/Cargo.toml
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ semver = "0.2.1"
 toml = "0.1"
 unicode-normalization = "0.1"
 quine-mc_cluskey = "0.2.2"
+rustc-serialize = "0.3"
 
 [features]
 debugging = []
diff --git a/clippy_lints/src/lib.rs b/clippy_lints/src/lib.rs
index 4a5c3a87c8c..944825e2bdc 100644
--- a/clippy_lints/src/lib.rs
+++ b/clippy_lints/src/lib.rs
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ extern crate regex_syntax;
 // for finding minimal boolean expressions
 extern crate quine_mc_cluskey;
 
+extern crate rustc_serialize;
+
 extern crate rustc_plugin;
 extern crate rustc_const_eval;
 extern crate rustc_const_math;
diff --git a/clippy_lints/src/utils/cargo.rs b/clippy_lints/src/utils/cargo.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c6004864bf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/clippy_lints/src/utils/cargo.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+use std::process::Command;
+use std::str::{from_utf8, Utf8Error};
+use std::io;
+use rustc_serialize::json;
+
+#[derive(RustcDecodable, Debug)]
+pub struct Metadata {
+    pub packages: Vec<Package>,
+    resolve: Option<()>,
+    pub version: usize,
+}
+
+#[derive(RustcDecodable, Debug)]
+pub struct Package {
+    pub name: String,
+    pub version: String,
+    id: String,
+    source: Option<()>,
+    pub dependencies: Vec<Dependency>,
+    pub targets: Vec<Target>,
+    features: HashMap<String, Vec<String>>,
+    manifest_path: String,
+}
+
+#[derive(RustcDecodable, Debug)]
+pub struct Dependency {
+    pub name: String,
+    source: Option<String>,
+    pub req: String,
+    kind: Option<String>,
+    optional: bool,
+    uses_default_features: bool,
+    features: Vec<HashMap<String, String>>,
+    target: Option<()>,
+}
+
+#[allow(non_camel_case_types)]
+#[derive(RustcDecodable, Debug)]
+pub enum Kind {
+    dylib,
+    test,
+    bin,
+    lib,
+}
+
+#[derive(RustcDecodable, Debug)]
+pub struct Target {
+    pub name: String,
+    pub kind: Vec<Kind>,
+    src_path: String,
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug)]
+pub enum Error {
+    Io(io::Error),
+    Utf8(Utf8Error),
+    Json(json::DecoderError),
+}
+
+impl From<io::Error> for Error {
+    fn from(err: io::Error) -> Self { Error::Io(err) }
+}
+impl From<Utf8Error> for Error {
+    fn from(err: Utf8Error) -> Self { Error::Utf8(err) }
+}
+impl From<json::DecoderError> for Error {
+    fn from(err: json::DecoderError) -> Self { Error::Json(err) }
+}
+
+pub fn metadata() -> Result<Metadata, Error> {
+    let output = Command::new("cargo").args(&["metadata", "--no-deps"]).output()?;
+    let stdout = from_utf8(&output.stdout)?;
+    Ok(json::decode(stdout)?)
+}
diff --git a/clippy_lints/src/utils/mod.rs b/clippy_lints/src/utils/mod.rs
index c1cbd7ffe93..986462b3723 100644
--- a/clippy_lints/src/utils/mod.rs
+++ b/clippy_lints/src/utils/mod.rs
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ pub mod conf;
 mod hir;
 pub mod paths;
 pub use self::hir::{SpanlessEq, SpanlessHash};
+pub mod cargo;
 
 pub type MethodArgs = HirVec<P<Expr>>;
 
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 970222e1076..3ad32a54058 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 // error-pattern:yummy
 #![feature(box_syntax)]
 #![feature(rustc_private)]
+#![feature(slice_patterns)]
 
 extern crate rustc_driver;
 extern crate getopts;
@@ -8,6 +9,7 @@ extern crate rustc;
 extern crate syntax;
 extern crate rustc_plugin;
 extern crate clippy_lints;
+extern crate rustc_serialize;
 
 use rustc_driver::{driver, CompilerCalls, RustcDefaultCalls, Compilation};
 use rustc::session::{config, Session};
@@ -16,6 +18,8 @@ use syntax::diagnostics;
 use std::path::PathBuf;
 use std::process::Command;
 
+use clippy_lints::utils::cargo;
+
 struct ClippyCompilerCalls(RustcDefaultCalls);
 
 impl std::default::Default for ClippyCompilerCalls {
@@ -118,16 +122,18 @@ pub fn main() {
     };
 
     if let Some("clippy") = std::env::args().nth(1).as_ref().map(AsRef::as_ref) {
-        let args = wrap_args(std::env::args().skip(2), dep_path, sys_root);
-        let path = std::env::current_exe().expect("current executable path invalid");
-        let exit_status = std::process::Command::new("cargo")
-            .args(&args)
-            .env("RUSTC", path)
-            .spawn().expect("could not run cargo")
-            .wait().expect("failed to wait for cargo?");
-
-        if let Some(code) = exit_status.code() {
-            std::process::exit(code);
+        let mut metadata = cargo::metadata().expect("could not obtain cargo metadata");
+        assert_eq!(metadata.version, 1);
+        for target in metadata.packages.remove(0).targets {
+            let args = std::env::args().skip(2);
+            assert_eq!(target.kind.len(), 1);
+            match &target.kind[..] {
+                [cargo::Kind::lib] |
+                [cargo::Kind::dylib] => process(std::iter::once("--lib".to_owned()).chain(args), &dep_path, &sys_root),
+                [cargo::Kind::bin] => process(vec!["--bin".to_owned(), target.name].into_iter().chain(args), &dep_path, &sys_root),
+                // don't process tests and other stuff
+                _ => {},
+            }
         }
     } else {
         let args: Vec<String> = if env::args().any(|s| s == "--sysroot") {
@@ -145,7 +151,7 @@ pub fn main() {
     }
 }
 
-fn wrap_args<P, I>(old_args: I, dep_path: P, sysroot: String) -> Vec<String>
+fn process<P, I>(old_args: I, dep_path: P, sysroot: &str)
     where P: AsRef<Path>, I: Iterator<Item=String> {
 
     let mut args = vec!["rustc".to_owned()];
@@ -161,7 +167,17 @@ fn wrap_args<P, I>(old_args: I, dep_path: P, sysroot: String) -> Vec<String>
     args.push("-L".to_owned());
     args.push(dep_path.as_ref().to_string_lossy().into_owned());
     args.push(String::from("--sysroot"));
-    args.push(sysroot);
+    args.push(sysroot.to_owned());
     args.push("-Zno-trans".to_owned());
-    args
+
+    let path = std::env::current_exe().expect("current executable path invalid");
+    let exit_status = std::process::Command::new("cargo")
+        .args(&args)
+        .env("RUSTC", path)
+        .spawn().expect("could not run cargo")
+        .wait().expect("failed to wait for cargo?");
+
+    if let Some(code) = exit_status.code() {
+        std::process::exit(code);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/tests/versioncheck.rs b/tests/versioncheck.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b2a2f416a8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/versioncheck.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+extern crate clippy_lints;
+use clippy_lints::utils::cargo;
+
+#[test]
+fn check_that_clippy_lints_has_the_same_version_as_clippy() {
+    let clippy_meta = cargo::metadata().expect("could not obtain cargo metadata");
+    std::env::set_current_dir(std::env::current_dir().unwrap().join("clippy_lints")).unwrap();
+    let clippy_lints_meta = cargo::metadata().expect("could not obtain cargo metadata");
+    assert_eq!(clippy_lints_meta.packages[0].version, clippy_meta.packages[0].version);
+    for package in &clippy_meta.packages[0].dependencies {
+        if package.name == "clippy_lints" {
+            assert_eq!(clippy_lints_meta.packages[0].version, package.req[1..]);
+            return;
+        }
+    }
+}