diff --git a/initify.pl b/initify.pl
index 7cec3d2..acbfad3 100755
--- a/initify.pl
+++ b/initify.pl
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ use feature "switch";
 use Getopt::Long;
 use Pod::Usage;
 
+unless (-e $ARGV[0]) {
+    print "can not find service file: '$ARGV[0]' - quitting\n";
+    exit;
+}
+
 my $type = "simple";
 my @cmds_start = ();
 my @cmds_stop = ();