diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index d0d81834d8..cd883d2afd 100755
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ BSD awk complains: awk: gensub doesn't support backreferences (subst "\1") ])
 fi
 AC_ARG_VAR([GAWK],[GNU AWK])
 
+AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
+
 dnl default is to match previous behavior
 exampledir=${sysconfdir}
 AC_ARG_ENABLE([exampledir],