diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 5c23a906e..76d3dc590 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -24,6 +24,11 @@ CANONICAL_HOST=$host
 AC_SUBST(CANONICAL_HOST)
 
 AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
+dnl need to set this on the command line, since it might otherwise break
+dnl with generated code, such as lex
+if test "$enable_largefile" != no -a "$ac_cv_sys_large_files" != no; then
+	CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -D_LARGE_FILES=$ac_cv_sys_large_files"
+fi
 
 dnl
 dnl this is needed to run the configure tests against glibc