diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index beabc574142..5e697bd2f20 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 2.8.0.dev (compared to 2.7.X)
 -----------------------------
+- deprecate and warn about the --genscript option
 
 - fix issue82: avoid loading conftest files from setup.cfg/pytest.ini/tox.ini
   files and upwards by default (--confcutdir can still be set to override this).
diff --git a/_pytest/genscript.py b/_pytest/genscript.py
index d6f452370f7..c7026f703ff 100755
--- a/_pytest/genscript.py
+++ b/_pytest/genscript.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-""" generate a single-file self-contained version of pytest """
+""" (deprecated) generate a single-file self-contained version of pytest """
 import os
 import sys
 import pkgutil
@@ -72,6 +72,8 @@ def pytest_cmdline_main(config):
     genscript = config.getvalue("genscript")
     if genscript:
         tw = _pytest.config.create_terminal_writer(config)
+        tw.line("WARNING: usage of genscript is deprecated.",
+                red=True)
         deps =  ['py', 'pluggy', '_pytest', 'pytest']
         if sys.version_info < (2,7):
             deps.append("argparse")
diff --git a/doc/en/goodpractises.txt b/doc/en/goodpractises.txt
index 0f36c5e6b61..54b71f62d93 100644
--- a/doc/en/goodpractises.txt
+++ b/doc/en/goodpractises.txt
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ to create a JUnitXML file that Jenkins_ can pick up and generate reports.
 .. _standalone:
 .. _`genscript method`:
 
-Create a pytest standalone script
+(deprecated) Create a pytest standalone script
 -------------------------------------------
 
 If you are a maintainer or application developer and want people
diff --git a/doc/en/test/plugin/genscript.txt b/doc/en/test/plugin/genscript.txt
index b2e1c58af20..ee80f233fa0 100644
--- a/doc/en/test/plugin/genscript.txt
+++ b/doc/en/test/plugin/genscript.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-generate standalone test script to be distributed along with an application.
+(deprecated) generate standalone test script to be distributed along with an application.
 ============================================================================