diff --git a/tools/ci/check-executable.sh b/tools/ci/check-executable.sh
index 35b1b7704..eca5225b0 100755
--- a/tools/ci/check-executable.sh
+++ b/tools/ci/check-executable.sh
@@ -2,9 +2,16 @@
 # This script finds executable files in the repository, excluding some directories,
 # then prints the list of all files which are not in executable-list.txt.
 # Returns with error if this list is non-empty.
+# Also checks if executable-list.txt is sorted and has no duplicates.
+
+set -o errexit # Exit if command failed.
+set -o pipefail # Exit if pipe failed.
+set -o nounset # Exit if variable not set.
+
 
 cd $IDF_PATH
 
+in_list=tools/ci/executable-list.txt
 tmp_list=$(mktemp)
 out_list=$(mktemp)
 
@@ -27,7 +34,7 @@ find . -type d \( \
     | sed "s|^\./||" > $tmp_list
 
 # this looks for lines present in tmp_list but not in executable-list.txt
-comm -13 <(cat tools/ci/executable-list.txt | sed -n "/^#/!p" | sort) <(sort $tmp_list) > $out_list
+comm -13 <(cat $in_list | sed -n "/^#/!p" | sort) <(sort $tmp_list) > $out_list
 
 ret=0
 if [ -s $out_list ]; then
@@ -42,6 +49,17 @@ if [ -s $out_list ]; then
     echo ""
 fi
 
+if ! diff <(cat $in_list | sed -n "/^#/!p" | sort | uniq) $in_list; then
+    echo "$in_list is not sorted or has duplicate entries"
+    ret=2
+fi
+
+for filename in $(cat $in_list | sed -n "/^#/!p"); do
+    if [ ! -f "$filename" ]; then
+        echo "Warning: file '$filename' is present in '$in_list', but does not exist"
+    fi
+done
+
 rm $tmp_list
 rm $out_list
 
diff --git a/tools/ci/executable-list.txt b/tools/ci/executable-list.txt
index 14071ab2e..3324c758a 100644
--- a/tools/ci/executable-list.txt
+++ b/tools/ci/executable-list.txt
@@ -1,39 +1,49 @@
-# Some tools
-components/app_update/gen_empty_partition.py
-tools/elf_to_ld.sh
+components/app_update/otatool.py
+components/efuse/efuse_table_gen.py
+components/efuse/test_efuse_host/efuse_tests.py
 components/espcoredump/espcoredump.py
+components/espcoredump/test/test_espcoredump.py
+components/espcoredump/test/test_espcoredump.sh
 components/heap/test_multi_heap_host/test_all_configs.sh
 components/idf_test/unit_test/TestCaseScript/IDFUnitTest/__init__.py
 components/nvs_flash/nvs_partition_generator/nvs_partition_gen.py
-components/efuse/efuse_table_gen.py
-components/efuse/test_efuse_host/efuse_tests.py
 components/partition_table/gen_esp32part.py
 components/partition_table/parttool.py
-components/app_update/gen_empty_partition.py
-components/app_update/otatool.py
 components/partition_table/test_gen_esp32part_host/gen_esp32part_tests.py
-components/ulp/esp32ulp_mapgen.py
 components/spiffs/spiffsgen.py
+components/ulp/esp32ulp_mapgen.py
 docs/check_doc_warnings.sh
 docs/check_lang_folder_sync.sh
-docs/gen-kconfig-doc.py
+docs/gen-dxd.py
 docs/gen-version-specific-includes.py
+examples/build_system/cmake/idf_as_lib/build-esp32.sh
+examples/build_system/cmake/idf_as_lib/build.sh
+examples/build_system/cmake/idf_as_lib/run-esp32.sh
+examples/build_system/cmake/idf_as_lib/run.sh
+examples/storage/parttool/parttool_example.py
+examples/system/ota/otatool/otatool_example.py
+tools/check_kconfigs.py
+tools/check_python_dependencies.py
 tools/ci/apply_bot_filter.py
 tools/ci/build_examples.sh
 tools/ci/build_examples_cmake.sh
 tools/ci/check-executable.sh
 tools/ci/check-line-endings.sh
+tools/ci/check_examples_cmake_make.sh
+tools/ci/check_ut_cmake_make.sh
 tools/ci/checkout_project_ref.py
 tools/ci/envsubst.py
 tools/ci/get-full-sources.sh
 tools/ci/mirror-submodule-update.sh
 tools/ci/mirror-synchronize.sh
+tools/ci/multirun_with_pyenv.sh
 tools/ci/push_to_github.sh
 tools/ci/test_build_system.sh
 tools/ci/test_build_system_cmake.sh
 tools/ci/test_configure_ci_environment.sh
 tools/cmake/convert_to_cmake.py
 tools/cmake/run_cmake_lint.sh
+tools/elf_to_ld.sh
 tools/esp_app_trace/logtrace_proc.py
 tools/esp_app_trace/sysviewtrace_proc.py
 tools/esp_app_trace/test/logtrace/test.sh
@@ -44,40 +54,19 @@ tools/idf.py
 tools/idf_monitor.py
 tools/idf_size.py
 tools/kconfig/check.sh
-tools/kconfig/conf
 tools/kconfig/lxdialog/check-lxdialog.sh
-tools/kconfig/mconf
 tools/kconfig/merge_config.sh
 tools/kconfig/streamline_config.pl
-tools/mass_mfg/mfg_gen.py
-tools/test_idf_monitor/run_test_idf_monitor.py
-tools/unit-test-app/unit_test.py
-tools/windows/eclipse_make.sh
-tools/ci/build_examples_cmake.sh
-tools/ci/test_build_system_cmake.sh
-tools/ci/check_examples_cmake_make.sh
-tools/ci/check_ut_cmake_make.sh
-tools/cmake/convert_to_cmake.py
-tools/cmake/run_cmake_lint.sh
-tools/idf.py
 tools/kconfig_new/confgen.py
 tools/kconfig_new/confserver.py
 tools/kconfig_new/test/test_confserver.py
-tools/windows/tool_setup/build_installer.sh
-tools/test_idf_size/test.sh
-tools/check_python_dependencies.py
-docs/gen-dxd.py
-tools/ci/multirun_with_pyenv.sh
-components/espcoredump/test/test_espcoredump.py
-components/espcoredump/test/test_espcoredump.sh
 tools/ldgen/ldgen.py
 tools/ldgen/test/test_fragments.py
 tools/ldgen/test/test_generation.py
-examples/build_system/cmake/idf_as_lib/build-esp32.sh
-examples/build_system/cmake/idf_as_lib/build.sh
-examples/build_system/cmake/idf_as_lib/run-esp32.sh
-examples/build_system/cmake/idf_as_lib/run.sh
-examples/storage/parttool/parttool_example.py
-examples/system/ota/otatool/otatool_example.py
-tools/check_kconfigs.py
+tools/mass_mfg/mfg_gen.py
 tools/test_check_kconfigs.py
+tools/test_idf_monitor/run_test_idf_monitor.py
+tools/test_idf_size/test.sh
+tools/unit-test-app/unit_test.py
+tools/windows/eclipse_make.sh
+tools/windows/tool_setup/build_installer.sh