diff --git a/src/librustc_trans/back/link.rs b/src/librustc_trans/back/link.rs
index 4ddf8a883bc48..6bdb3ce631fb1 100644
--- a/src/librustc_trans/back/link.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_trans/back/link.rs
@@ -48,6 +48,13 @@ use syntax::attr;
 use syntax::symbol::Symbol;
 use syntax_pos::Span;
 
+/// The LLVM module name containing crate-metadata. This includes a `.` on
+/// purpose, so it cannot clash with the name of a user-defined module.
+pub const METADATA_MODULE_NAME: &'static str = "crate.metadata";
+/// The name of the crate-metadata object file the compiler generates. Must
+/// match up with `METADATA_MODULE_NAME`.
+pub const METADATA_OBJ_NAME: &'static str = "crate.metadata.o";
+
 // RLIB LLVM-BYTECODE OBJECT LAYOUT
 // Version 1
 // Bytes    Data
@@ -213,7 +220,7 @@ pub fn link_binary(sess: &Session,
                 remove(sess, &obj);
             }
         }
-        remove(sess, &outputs.with_extension("metadata.o"));
+        remove(sess, &outputs.with_extension(METADATA_OBJ_NAME));
     }
 
     out_filenames
@@ -832,7 +839,7 @@ fn link_args(cmd: &mut Linker,
     // object file, so we link that in here.
     if crate_type == config::CrateTypeDylib ||
        crate_type == config::CrateTypeProcMacro {
-        cmd.add_object(&outputs.with_extension("metadata.o"));
+        cmd.add_object(&outputs.with_extension(METADATA_OBJ_NAME));
     }
 
     // Try to strip as much out of the generated object by removing unused
diff --git a/src/librustc_trans/back/write.rs b/src/librustc_trans/back/write.rs
index b3a2d66a07c11..fa43d94e9c114 100644
--- a/src/librustc_trans/back/write.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_trans/back/write.rs
@@ -866,12 +866,12 @@ pub fn run_passes(sess: &Session,
     // Clean up unwanted temporary files.
 
     // We create the following files by default:
-    //  - crate.#module-name#.bc
-    //  - crate.#module-name#.o
-    //  - crate.metadata.bc
-    //  - crate.metadata.o
-    //  - crate.o (linked from crate.##.o)
-    //  - crate.bc (copied from crate.##.bc)
+    //  - #crate#.#module-name#.bc
+    //  - #crate#.#module-name#.o
+    //  - #crate#.crate.metadata.bc
+    //  - #crate#.crate.metadata.o
+    //  - #crate#.o (linked from crate.##.o)
+    //  - #crate#.bc (copied from crate.##.bc)
     // We may create additional files if requested by the user (through
     // `-C save-temps` or `--emit=` flags).
 
@@ -919,9 +919,9 @@ pub fn run_passes(sess: &Session,
     }
 
     // We leave the following files around by default:
-    //  - crate.o
-    //  - crate.metadata.o
-    //  - crate.bc
+    //  - #crate#.o
+    //  - #crate#.crate.metadata.o
+    //  - #crate#.bc
     // These are used in linking steps and will be cleaned up afterward.
 
     // FIXME: time_llvm_passes support - does this use a global context or
diff --git a/src/librustc_trans/base.rs b/src/librustc_trans/base.rs
index 9bd19d5bbb3e4..a4841a914deda 100644
--- a/src/librustc_trans/base.rs
+++ b/src/librustc_trans/base.rs
@@ -1146,7 +1146,7 @@ pub fn trans_crate<'a, 'tcx>(tcx: TyCtxt<'a, 'tcx, 'tcx>,
     });
 
     let metadata_module = ModuleTranslation {
-        name: "metadata".to_string(),
+        name: link::METADATA_MODULE_NAME.to_string(),
         symbol_name_hash: 0, // we always rebuild metadata, at least for now
         source: ModuleSource::Translated(ModuleLlvm {
             llcx: shared_ccx.metadata_llcx(),