diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 9b4c2273b..727965eab 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -43,15 +43,16 @@ AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(guile-readline)
 #
 #--------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+GUILE_ERROR_ON_WARNING="yes"
+
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(error-on-warning,
   [  --enable-error-on-warning    treat compile warnings as errors],
   [case "${enableval}" in
-     yes | y) CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -Werror"; enable_compile_warnings=no ;;
-     no | n)  ;;
+     yes | y) GUILE_ERROR_ON_WARNING="yes" ;;
+     no | n)  GUILE_ERROR_ON_WARNING="no" ;;
      *) AC_MSG_ERROR(bad value ${enableval} for --enable-error-on-warning) ;;
    esac])
 
-
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(debug-freelist,
   [  --enable-debug-freelist include garbage collector freelist debugging code],
   if test "$enable_debug_freelist" = y || test "$enable_debug_freelist" = yes; then
@@ -221,7 +222,7 @@ AC_HEADER_STDC
 AC_HEADER_DIRENT
 AC_HEADER_TIME
 AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
-AC_CHECK_HEADERS(io.h libc.h limits.h malloc.h memory.h string.h regex.h rxposix.h rx/rxposix.h sys/ioctl.h sys/select.h sys/time.h sys/timeb.h sys/times.h sys/stdtypes.h sys/types.h sys/utime.h time.h unistd.h utime.h pwd.h winsock2.h grp.h sys/utsname.h)
+AC_CHECK_HEADERS([assert.h io.h libc.h limits.h malloc.h memory.h string.h regex.h rxposix.h rx/rxposix.h sys/ioctl.h sys/select.h sys/time.h sys/timeb.h sys/times.h sys/stdtypes.h sys/types.h sys/utime.h time.h unistd.h utime.h pwd.h winsock2.h grp.h sys/utsname.h])
 GUILE_HEADER_LIBC_WITH_UNISTD
 
 AC_TYPE_GETGROUPS
@@ -622,6 +623,15 @@ if test "${THREAD_PACKAGE}" != "" ; then
   fi
 fi
 
+# Do this here so we don't screw up any of the tests above that might
+# not be "warning free"
+
+if test "${GUILE_ERROR_ON_WARNING}" = yes
+then
+  CFLAGS="${CFLAGS} -Werror"
+  enable_compile_warnings=no
+fi
+
 ## If we're using GCC, ask for aggressive warnings.
 case "$GCC" in
   yes )