diff --git a/src/librustc_codegen_llvm/llvm_util.rs b/src/librustc_codegen_llvm/llvm_util.rs
index b631c10334c..f0b50459837 100644
--- a/src/librustc_codegen_llvm/llvm_util.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_codegen_llvm/llvm_util.rs
@@ -73,7 +73,8 @@ unsafe fn configure_llvm(sess: &Session) {
                 llvm_c_strs.push(s);
             }
         };
-        add("rustc", true); // fake program name
+        // Set the llvm "program name" to make usage and invalid argument messages more clear.
+        add("rustc -Cllvm-args=\"...\" with", true);
         if sess.time_llvm_passes() {
             add("-time-passes", false);
         }
diff --git a/src/test/ui/unknown-llvm-arg.rs b/src/test/ui/unknown-llvm-arg.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..289bae24f81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/ui/unknown-llvm-arg.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+// compile-flags: -Cllvm-args=-not-a-real-llvm-arg
+// normalize-stderr-test "--help" -> "-help"
+// normalize-stderr-test "\n(\n|.)*" -> ""
+
+// I'm seeing "--help" locally, but "-help" in CI, so I'm normalizing it to just "-help".
+
+// Note that the rustc-supplied "program name", given when invoking LLVM, is used by LLVM to
+// generate user-facing error messages and a usage (--help) messages. If the program name is
+// `rustc`, the usage message in response to `--llvm-args="--help"` starts with:
+// ```
+//   USAGE: rustc [options]
+// ```
+// followed by the list of options not to `rustc` but to `llvm`.
+//
+// On the other hand, if the program name is set to `rustc -Cllvm-args="..." with`, the usage
+// message is more clear:
+// ```
+//   USAGE: rustc -Cllvm-args="..." with [options]
+// ```
+// This test captures the effect of the current program name setting on LLVM command line
+// error messages.
+fn main() {}
diff --git a/src/test/ui/unknown-llvm-arg.stderr b/src/test/ui/unknown-llvm-arg.stderr
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e1d3cfea28f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/ui/unknown-llvm-arg.stderr
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+rustc -Cllvm-args="..." with: Unknown command line argument '-not-a-real-llvm-arg'.  Try: 'rustc -Cllvm-args="..." with -help'
\ No newline at end of file