diff --git a/src/tools/pgindent/pgperltidy b/src/tools/pgindent/pgperltidy
index 6af27d21d55..b394f392772 100755
--- a/src/tools/pgindent/pgperltidy
+++ b/src/tools/pgindent/pgperltidy
@@ -2,11 +2,18 @@
 
 # src/tools/pgindent/pgperltidy
 
-set -e
-
 # set this to override default perltidy program:
 PERLTIDY=${PERLTIDY:-perltidy}
 
+PERLTIDY_VERSION=20230309
+$PERLTIDY -v | grep -q $PERLTIDY_VERSION
+if [ $? == 1 ]; then
+	echo "error: pgperltidy requires perltidy v$PERLTIDY_VERSION"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+set -e
+
 . src/tools/perlcheck/find_perl_files
 
 find_perl_files "$@" | xargs $PERLTIDY --profile=src/tools/pgindent/perltidyrc