diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index d3cc31bd5..e5d716934 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@ AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(cogl/cogl.h)
 AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build])
 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([build/autotools])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS(config.h)
+AC_GNU_SOURCE
 
 dnl ================================================================
 dnl Required versions for dependencies