diff --git a/modules/database/src/template/top/exampleApp/src/xxxSupport.dbd b/modules/database/src/template/top/exampleApp/src/xxxSupport.dbd
index 8094bdda6..64f2e3842 100644
--- a/modules/database/src/template/top/exampleApp/src/xxxSupport.dbd
+++ b/modules/database/src/template/top/exampleApp/src/xxxSupport.dbd
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 include "xxxRecord.dbd"
-device(xxx,CONSTANT,devXxxSoft,"SoftChannel")
+device(xxx,CONSTANT,devXxxSoft,"Soft Channel")
diff --git a/modules/database/src/tools/DBD/Parser.pm b/modules/database/src/tools/DBD/Parser.pm
index d7e16ff52..cb046e062 100644
--- a/modules/database/src/tools/DBD/Parser.pm
+++ b/modules/database/src/tools/DBD/Parser.pm
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ use DBD::Function;
 use DBD::Variable;
 
 our $debug=0;
+our $allowAutoDeclarations=0;
 
 sub ParseDBD {
     (my $dbd, $_) = @_;
@@ -102,8 +103,11 @@ sub ParseDBD {
                 unquote($1, $2, $3, $4);
             my $rtyp = $dbd->recordtype($record_type);
             if (!defined $rtyp) {
+                my $msg = "Device '$choice' defined for unknown record type '$record_type'.";
+                dieContext($msg, "DBD files must be added in the correct order.")
+                    unless $allowAutoDeclarations;
+                warn "$msg\nRecord type '$record_type' declared.\n";
                 $rtyp = DBD::Recordtype->new($record_type);
-                warn "Device using unknown record type '$record_type', declaration created\n";
                 $dbd->add($rtyp);
             }
             $rtyp->add_device(DBD::Device->new($link_type, $dset, $choice));
diff --git a/modules/database/src/tools/registerRecordDeviceDriver.pl b/modules/database/src/tools/registerRecordDeviceDriver.pl
index 74b518a66..8d6bcd1ea 100644
--- a/modules/database/src/tools/registerRecordDeviceDriver.pl
+++ b/modules/database/src/tools/registerRecordDeviceDriver.pl
@@ -31,6 +31,9 @@ my @path = map { split /[:;]/ } @opt_I; # FIXME: Broken on Win32?
 
 my ($file, $subname, $bldTop) = @ARGV;
 
+# Permit auto-declaration of record types for building runtime-loadable modules
+$DBD::Parser::allowAutoDeclarations = 1;
+
 my $dbd = DBD->new();
 ParseDBD($dbd, Readfile($file, "", \@path));