diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 30b7f1bafa..e25d2f1399 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -604,7 +604,7 @@ endforeach
 conf.set_quoted('TELINIT', get_option('telinit-path'))
 
 if run_command('ln', '--relative', '--help').returncode() != 0
-        error('ln does not support --relative')
+        error('ln does not support --relative (added in coreutils 8.16)')
 endif
 
 ############################################################