diff --git a/doc/configuration.txt b/doc/configuration.txt
index 885659345..151cbb10b 100644
--- a/doc/configuration.txt
+++ b/doc/configuration.txt
@@ -4176,11 +4176,18 @@ quiet
 
 zero-warning
   When this option is set, HAProxy will refuse to start if any warning was
-  emitted while processing the configuration. It is highly recommended to set
-  this option on configurations that are not changed often, as it helps detect
-  subtle mistakes and keep the configuration clean and forward-compatible. Note
-  that "haproxy -c" will also report errors in such a case. This option is
-  equivalent to command line argument "-dW".
+  emitted while processing the configuration and applying it. It means that
+  warnings about bad combinations of parameters, warnings about very high
+  limits that couldn't be set, and so on, make the process exit with an error
+  during startup. A few late startup warnings cannot be caught by this option,
+  such as the failure to drop supplementary groups when changing the group ID
+  in "daemon" or "master-worker" modes, or the failure to mark the process
+  dumpable after the fork(). This option does not catch warnings emitted at
+  runtime. It is highly recommended to set this option on configurations that
+  are not changed often, as it helps to detect subtle mistakes and keep the
+  configuration clean and forward-compatible. Note that "haproxy -c" will also
+  report errors in such a case. This option is equivalent to command line
+  argument "-dW".
 
 
 3.4. Userlists
diff --git a/src/haproxy.c b/src/haproxy.c
index c00947583..629a56fa9 100644
--- a/src/haproxy.c
+++ b/src/haproxy.c
@@ -3485,6 +3485,14 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	clock_adjust_now_offset();
 	ready_date = date;
 
+	/* catch last warnings, which could be produced while adjusting limits
+	 * or preallocating fds
+	 */
+	if (warned & WARN_ANY && global.mode & MODE_ZERO_WARNING) {
+		ha_alert("Some warnings were found and 'zero-warning' is set. Aborting.\n");
+		exit(1);
+	}
+
 	if (global.mode & (MODE_DAEMON | MODE_MWORKER | MODE_MWORKER_WAIT)) {
 		int ret = 0;
 		int in_parent = 0;