diff --git a/Documentation/coccinelle.txt b/Documentation/coccinelle.txt
index b50ac7e..1c26908 100644
--- a/Documentation/coccinelle.txt
+++ b/Documentation/coccinelle.txt
@@ -277,6 +277,25 @@
 one of these tools, and according to the cocci file used,
 spatch could proceed the entire code base more quickly.
 
+ SmPL patch specific options
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+SmPL patches can have their own requirements for options passed
+to Coccinelle. SmPL patch specific options can be provided by
+providing them at the top of the SmPL patch, for instance:
+
+// Options: --no-includes --include-headers
+
+ SmPL patch Coccinelle requirements
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+As Coccinelle features get added some more advanced SmPL patches
+may require newer versions of Coccinelle. If an SmPL patch requires
+at least a version of Coccinelle, this can be specified as follows,
+as an example if requiring at least Coccinelle >= 1.0.5:
+
+// Requires: 1.0.5
+
  Proposing new semantic patches
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/scripts/coccicheck b/scripts/coccicheck
index 081ba5b..f9293ab 100755
--- a/scripts/coccicheck
+++ b/scripts/coccicheck
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 # version 1.0.0-rc11.
 #
 
+DIR="$(dirname $(readlink -f $0))/.."
 SPATCH="`which ${SPATCH:=spatch}`"
 
 if [ ! -x "$SPATCH" ]; then
@@ -12,6 +13,9 @@
     exit 1
 fi
 
+SPATCH_VERSION=$($SPATCH --version | head -1 | awk '{print $3}')
+SPATCH_VERSION_NUM=$(echo $SPATCH_VERSION | ${DIR}/scripts/ld-version.sh)
+
 USE_JOBS="no"
 $SPATCH --help | grep "\-\-jobs" > /dev/null && USE_JOBS="yes"
 
@@ -171,6 +175,16 @@
     COCCI="$1"
 
     OPT=`grep "Option" $COCCI | cut -d':' -f2`
+    REQ=`grep "Requires" $COCCI | cut -d':' -f2 | sed "s| ||"`
+    REQ_NUM=$(echo $REQ | ${DIR}/scripts/ld-version.sh)
+    if [ "$REQ_NUM" != "0" ] ; then
+	    if [ "$SPATCH_VERSION_NUM" -lt "$REQ_NUM" ] ; then
+		    echo "Skipping coccinele SmPL patch: $COCCI"
+		    echo "You have coccinelle:           $SPATCH_VERSION"
+		    echo "This SmPL patch requires:      $REQ"
+		    return
+	    fi
+    fi
 
 #   The option '--parse-cocci' can be used to syntactically check the SmPL files.
 #