diff --git a/livetree.c b/livetree.c
index 169462d..f46a098 100644
--- a/livetree.c
+++ b/livetree.c
@@ -919,6 +919,12 @@ static void add_fixup_entry(struct dt_info *dti, struct node *fn,
 	/* m->ref can only be a REF_PHANDLE, but check anyway */
 	assert(m->type == REF_PHANDLE);
 
+	/* The format only permits fixups for references to label, not
+	 * references to path */
+	if (strchr(m->ref, '/'))
+		die("Can't generate fixup for reference to path &{%s}\n",
+		    m->ref);
+
 	/* there shouldn't be any ':' in the arguments */
 	if (strchr(node->fullpath, ':') || strchr(prop->name, ':'))
 		die("arguments should not contain ':'\n");
diff --git a/tests/fixup-ref-to-path.dts b/tests/fixup-ref-to-path.dts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6dcba0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/fixup-ref-to-path.dts
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+/dts-v1/;
+/plugin/;
+
+/ {
+	prop = < &{/path/to/node} >;
+};
diff --git a/tests/run_tests.sh b/tests/run_tests.sh
index 0cabd13..244df8a 100755
--- a/tests/run_tests.sh
+++ b/tests/run_tests.sh
@@ -271,6 +271,7 @@ libfdt_overlay_tests () {
 	run_dtc_test -I dts -O dtb -o $tree.test.dtb "$SRCDIR/$tree.dts"
 	run_test overlay_bad_fixup overlay_base_no_symbols.test.dtb $tree.test.dtb
     done
+    run_sh_test "$SRCDIR/dtc-fatal.sh" -I dts -O dtb -o /dev/null fixup-ref-to-path.dts
 }
 
 # Tests to exercise dtc's overlay generation support