diff --git a/tools/build/stale-symlink-buildworld.sh b/tools/build/stale-symlink-buildworld.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..a4515db3fccb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/build/stale-symlink-buildworld.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Copyright (c) Feb 2024 Wolfram Schneider <wosch@FreeBSD.org>
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
+#
+# stale-symlink-buildworld.sh - check for stale symlinks on a FreeBSD system
+#
+# You can run the script before or after `make installworld'
+#
+
+PATH="/bin:/usr/bin"; export PATH
+
+: ${ncpu=$(nproc)}
+
+# check other directories as well
+: ${STALE_SYMLINK_BUILDWORLD_DIRS="/usr/obj"}
+
+trap 'rm -f $script' 0
+script=$(mktemp -t stale-symlink)
+chmod u+x $script
+
+# create a temporary shell script to check for stale symbolic links
+cat << 'EOF' > $script
+file="$1"
+
+if [ ! -e "$file" ]; then
+  echo "stale symlink detected: $(ls -ld $file)" >&2
+  exit 1
+else
+  exit 0
+fi
+EOF
+
+find -s -H \
+  /bin \
+  /boot \
+  /etc \
+  /lib \
+  /libexec \
+  /sbin \
+  /usr/bin \
+  /usr/include \
+  /usr/lib \
+  /usr/lib32 \
+  /usr/libdata \
+  /usr/libexec \
+  /usr/sbin \
+  /usr/src \
+  /usr/share \
+  $STALE_SYMLINK_BUILDWORLD_DIRS \
+  -type l \
+  -print0 | xargs -n1 -0 -P${ncpu} $script
+
+#EOF