diff --git a/pkg/analyzer/pubspec.yaml b/pkg/analyzer/pubspec.yaml
index 4c79bb5b77b..ab17aa41d28 100644
--- a/pkg/analyzer/pubspec.yaml
+++ b/pkg/analyzer/pubspec.yaml
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ author: Dart Team <misc@dartlang.org>
 description: Static analyzer for Dart.
 homepage: http://www.dartlang.org
 environment:
-  sdk: '>=1.8.0 <2.0.0'
+  sdk: '>=1.12.0-dev.1.0 <2.0.0'
 dependencies:
   args: '>=0.12.1 <0.14.0'
   html: ^0.12.0
diff --git a/sdk/lib/_internal/libraries.dart b/sdk/lib/_internal/libraries.dart
deleted file mode 100644
index daeea7712cd..00000000000
--- a/sdk/lib/_internal/libraries.dart
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright (c) 2012, the Dart project authors.  Please see the AUTHORS file
-// for details. All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
-// BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
-
-/// This file moved under `sdk/lib/_internal/sdk_library_metadata/lib/libraries.dart`.
-@deprecated
-library libraries;
-
-export 'sdk_library_metadata/lib/libraries.dart';
diff --git a/tools/create_sdk.py b/tools/create_sdk.py
index fefd0c6ba4c..4b840708cb6 100755
--- a/tools/create_sdk.py
+++ b/tools/create_sdk.py
@@ -220,6 +220,17 @@ def Main():
              ignore=ignore_patterns('*.svn', 'doc', '*.py', '*.gypi', '*.sh',
                                     '.gitignore'))
 
+  # Copy libraries.dart to lib/_internal/libraries.dart for backwards
+  # compatibility.
+  #
+  # TODO(sigmund): stop copying libraries.dart. Old versions (<=0.25.1-alpha.4)
+  # of the analyzer package do not support the new location of this file. We
+  # should be able to remove the old file once we release a newer version of
+  # analyzer and popular frameworks have migrated to use it.
+  copyfile(join(HOME, 'sdk', 'lib', '_internal',
+                'sdk_library_metadata', 'lib', 'libraries.dart'),
+           join(LIB, '_internal', 'libraries.dart'))
+
   # Create and copy tools.
   UTIL = join(SDK_tmp, 'util')
   os.makedirs(UTIL)
diff --git a/utils/dartanalyzer/dartanalyzer.gyp b/utils/dartanalyzer/dartanalyzer.gyp
index 3b4f5dedc19..93dc15f2764 100644
--- a/utils/dartanalyzer/dartanalyzer.gyp
+++ b/utils/dartanalyzer/dartanalyzer.gyp
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
           'action_name': 'generate_dartanalyzer_snapshot',
           'inputs': [
             '<(PRODUCT_DIR)/<(EXECUTABLE_PREFIX)dart<(EXECUTABLE_SUFFIX)',
-            '../../sdk/lib/_internal/libraries.dart',
+            '../../sdk/lib/_internal/sdk_library_metadata/lib/libraries.dart',
             '<(SHARED_INTERMEDIATE_DIR)/packages.stamp',
             '<!@(["python", "../../tools/list_files.py", "\\.dart$", "../../third_party/pkg/analyzer_cli"])',
           ],