diff --git a/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c b/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
index acd95aa..5426f75 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/transam/xlog.c
@@ -4957,6 +4957,16 @@ readRecoveryCommandFile(void)
 				 errmsg("could not open recovery command file \"%s\": %m",
 						RECOVERY_COMMAND_FILE)));
 	}
+	else if (!IsPostmasterEnvironment)
+	{
+		/*
+		 * Prevent standalone process to start if recovery is wanted. A lot of
+		 * code paths in recovery depend on the assumption that it is not the
+		 * case so recovery would just badly fail.
+		 */
+		ereport(FATAL,
+				(errmsg("recovery.conf is not allowed in a standalone process")));
+	}

 	/*
 	 * Since we're asking ParseConfigFp() to report errors as FATAL, there's