diff --git a/mxstartup2mxvipcfg b/mxstartup2mxvipcfg
index f5497f6..6144b1a 100755
--- a/mxstartup2mxvipcfg
+++ b/mxstartup2mxvipcfg
@@ -23,6 +23,11 @@ while(!($packed_ip=gethostbyname($fullhostname))) {
 
 my $hostip = inet_ntoa($packed_ip);
 
+unless(-d $rundir and -w $rundir) {
+   print STDERR "can't write to directory $rundir\n";
+   exit 1;
+}
+
 @lines = read_file($configfile);
 
 my ($host, $user, $script, $ip);