diff --git a/bin/install_upgrade.escript b/bin/install_upgrade.escript
index 3e39c787b..f7f340f31 100755
--- a/bin/install_upgrade.escript
+++ b/bin/install_upgrade.escript
@@ -18,18 +18,27 @@ main([Command0, DistInfoStr | CommandArgs]) ->
     Opts = parse_arguments(CommandArgs),
     %% invoke the command passed as argument
     F = case Command0 of
-        "install" -> fun(A, B) -> install(A, B) end;
-        "unpack" -> fun(A, B) -> unpack(A, B) end;
-        "upgrade" -> fun(A, B) -> upgrade(A, B) end;
-        "downgrade" -> fun(A, B) -> downgrade(A, B) end;
-        "uninstall" -> fun(A, B) -> uninstall(A, B) end;
-        "versions" -> fun(A, B) -> versions(A, B) end
+        %% "install" -> fun(A, B) -> install(A, B) end;
+        %% "unpack" -> fun(A, B) -> unpack(A, B) end;
+        %% "upgrade" -> fun(A, B) -> upgrade(A, B) end;
+        %% "downgrade" -> fun(A, B) -> downgrade(A, B) end;
+        %% "uninstall" -> fun(A, B) -> uninstall(A, B) end;
+        "versions" -> fun(A, B) -> versions(A, B) end;
+        _ -> fun fail_upgrade/2
     end,
     F(DistInfo, Opts);
 main(Args) ->
     ?INFO("unknown args: ~p", [Args]),
     erlang:halt(1).
 
+%% temporary block for hot-upgrades; next release will just remove
+%% this and the new script version shall be used instead of this
+%% current version.
+%% TODO: always deny relup for macos (unsupported)
+fail_upgrade(_DistInfo, _Opts) ->
+    ?ERROR("Unsupported upgrade path", []),
+    erlang:halt(1).
+
 unpack({RelName, NameTypeArg, NodeName, Cookie}, Opts) ->
     TargetNode = start_distribution(NodeName, NameTypeArg, Cookie),
     Version = proplists:get_value(version, Opts),