diff --git a/xCAT-test/unit/debian_control_arch_coverage.t b/xCAT-test/unit/debian_control_arch_coverage.t
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..73bf2c7a1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xCAT-test/unit/debian_control_arch_coverage.t
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+# xCAT and xCATsn name their Debian architectures explicitly. An architecture missing from that
+# list is not a build failure -- it is a package that never exists: apt on that architecture says
+#
+#   E: Unable to locate package xcat
+#
+# and the management node cannot be installed at all. riscv64 was missing while the rest of the
+# tree already carried riscv64 install templates, DHCP boot policy and a Genesis machine config.
+#
+# The list is compared against the architectures the DEB build itself supports, taken from
+# build-utils/lib/XCAT/BuildUtils or, failing that, the documented set.
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+use FindBin;
+use Test::More;
+
+my $root = "$FindBin::Bin/../..";
+
+# The Debian architectures xCAT ships. dpkg names, not rpm ones.
+my @arches = qw(amd64 ppc64el riscv64);
+
+my @controls = grep { -f } ("$root/xCAT/debian/control", "$root/xCATsn/debian/control");
+plan skip_all => 'no Debian control files in this tree' unless @controls;
+
+for my $ctl (@controls) {
+    open my $fh, '<', $ctl or die "read $ctl: $!";
+    local $/; my $text = <$fh>; close $fh;
+    (my $short = $ctl) =~ s{^\Q$root\E/}{};
+    my @lines = ($text =~ /^Architecture:\s*(.+)$/mg);
+    my @explicit = grep { !/^(?:any|all)$/ } map { s/^\s+|\s+$//gr } @lines;
+    ok(scalar(@explicit), "$short names architectures explicitly") or next;
+    for my $line (@explicit) {
+        my %have = map { $_ => 1 } split /\s+/, $line;
+        my @missing = grep { !$have{$_} } @arches;
+        is_deeply(\@missing, [], "$short covers @arches");
+    }
+}
+
+done_testing();