diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 73d4eaa6eb37..14d85ab2773c 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -136,6 +136,7 @@ linux (4.8.14-1) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
   [ Ben Hutchings ]
   * [amd64] Re-enable LEGACY_VSYSCALL_EMULATE instead of LEGACY_VSYSCALL_NONE.
     There are still binaries in stable that use vsyscall (via dietlibc).
+  * debian/rules.real: Exclude *.pyc from featureset diffs
 
  -- Uwe Kleine-König <ukleinek@debian.org>  Sun, 04 Dec 2016 21:16:06 +0100
 
diff --git a/debian/rules.real b/debian/rules.real
index 418d7db0e25a..2c0a6dfc7918 100644
--- a/debian/rules.real
+++ b/debian/rules.real
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ $(BUILD_DIR)/linux-patch-$(UPSTREAMVERSION)-%.patch.xz: $(STAMPS_DIR)/source_non
 	set -o pipefail;						\
 	(cd '$(BUILD_DIR)';						\
 	 set +e;							\
-         diff -urN -p -x debian -x .pc -x .svk -x .svn -x .git source_none source_$*; \
+         diff -urN -p -x debian -x .pc -x .svk -x .svn -x .git -x '*.pyc' source_none source_$*; \
 	 test $$? -eq 1) |						\
 	filterdiff --remove-timestamps --strip=1 --addoldprefix=a/ --addnewprefix=b/ | \
 	xz -c >$@ ||							\