diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 366d4afdb79..ec0ad5fb171 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -540,6 +540,15 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE(url-fopen-wrapper,
   AC_MSG_RESULT(yes)
 ])
 
+AC_MSG_CHECKING(whether to enable PIC for shared objects)
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(pic,
+[  --disable-pic           Disable PIC for shared objects],[
+  PHP_PIC=$enableval
+],[
+  PHP_PIC=yes
+])
+AC_MSG_RESULT($PHP_PIC)
+
 DMALLOC_RESULT=no
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(whether to enable dmalloc)
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(dmalloc,
@@ -657,15 +666,6 @@ if test "$abs_srcdir" != "$abs_builddir"; then
   fi
 fi
 
-dnl *** Commented out - generates slow code and consumes a lot of 
-dnl *** resources during compilation - we need to figure out how
-dnl *** to supply it only when absolutely necessary
-dnl If we are using gcc add -fpic to make dl() work on some platforms
-dnl test -n "$GCC" && CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -fpic"
-
-dnl add -fPIC option on Solaris if we are building dynamic extensions
-dnl PHP_SOLARIS_PIC_WEIRDNESS
-
 EXTRA_LIBS="$EXTRA_LIBS $DLIBS $LIBS"
 LIBS=""
 LDFLAGS=""
@@ -742,6 +742,18 @@ PHP_SUBST(WARNING_LEVEL)
 PHP_SUBST(YACC)
 
 PHP_CONFIGURE_PART(Configuring libtool)
+
+old_CC="$CC"
+
+if test "$PHP_THREAD_SAFETY" = "yes" && test -n "$ac_cv_pthreads_cflags"; then
+  cat >meta_ccld<<EOF
+#! /bin/sh
+exec $CC $ac_cv_pthreads_cflags \$@
+EOF
+  CC="$abs_builddir/meta_ccld"
+  chmod +x meta_ccld
+fi
+
 AM_PROG_LIBTOOL
 if test "$enable_debug" != "yes"; then
   AM_SET_LIBTOOL_VARIABLE([--silent])
@@ -761,6 +773,20 @@ else
   fi
 fi
 
+CC="$old_CC"
+
+changequote({,})
+if test "$PHP_PIC" = "no"; then
+  cat >meta_cc<<EOF
+#! /bin/sh
+cmd="$CC \`echo \$@|sed s/-[fFD]PIC//g\`"
+exec \$cmd
+EOF
+  chmod +x meta_cc
+  CC="$abs_builddir/meta_cc"
+fi
+changequote([,])
+
 test "$prefix" = "NONE" && prefix="/usr/local"
 test "$exec_prefix" = "NONE" && exec_prefix='$(prefix)'