diff --git a/.github/checks/Makefile b/.github/checks/Makefile
index 3e85c0fd7..827606d01 100644
--- a/.github/checks/Makefile
+++ b/.github/checks/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,15 @@
 
 .PHONY: tabs
 
-check: tabs
+check: tabs lastline
 
 tabs: tabs.sh
 	@./tabs.sh
+	
+lastline: lastline.sh
+	@./lastline.sh
+	
+# checks that will currently fail (on a lot of files), so they are not included
+# in the general "check" action
+spaces: spaces.sh
+	@./spaces.sh
diff --git a/.github/checks/lastline.sh b/.github/checks/lastline.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..d455481d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/checks/lastline.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+OLDCWD=`pwd`
+SCRIPT_PATH=`dirname $0`
+cd $SCRIPT_PATH/../../
+
+nl='
+'
+nl=$'\n'
+FILES=`find $CHECK_PATH -type f \( \( -name \*.inc -a \! -name Makefile.inc \) -o -name \*.cfg -o -name \*.c -o -name \*.s -o -name \*.h -o -name \*.asm -o -name \*.sgml \) -print | while read f; do
+    t=$(tail -c2 $f; printf x); r1="${nl}$";
+    [[ ${t%x} =~ $r1 ]] || echo "$f"
+done`
+
+cd $OLDCWD
+
+if [ x"$FILES"x != xx ]; then
+    echo "error: found following files that have no newline at the end:"
+    for n in $FILES; do
+        echo $n
+    done
+    exit -1
+fi
diff --git a/.github/checks/spaces.sh b/.github/checks/spaces.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..309ba9ac1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/checks/spaces.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+OLDCWD=`pwd`
+SCRIPT_PATH=`dirname $0`
+cd $SCRIPT_PATH/../../
+
+FILES=`find $CHECK_PATH -type f \( \( -name \*.inc -a \! -name Makefile.inc \) -o -name \*.cfg -o -name \*.c -o -name \*.s -o -name \*.h -o -name \*.asm -o -name \*.sgml \) -print | xargs grep -l ' $' | grep -v "libwrk/" | grep -v "testwrk/"`
+
+cd $OLDCWD
+
+if [ x"$FILES"x != xx ]; then
+    echo "error: found dangling spaces in the following files:"
+    for n in $FILES; do
+        echo $n
+    done
+    exit -1
+fi