diff --git a/source3/wscript b/source3/wscript
index 92575c82647..00e9858517f 100644
--- a/source3/wscript
+++ b/source3/wscript
@@ -266,6 +266,14 @@ __sys_llseek syslog _telldir __telldir textdomain timegm
 utimensat vsyslog _write __write __xstat
 ''')
 
+    conf.CHECK_CODE('''
+#ifdef HAVE_SYS_PRCTL_H
+#include <sys/prctl.h>
+#endif
+int i; i = prtcl(0); 
+''', 
+                    'HAVE_PRCTL', link=False)
+
     conf.CHECK_SAMBA3_CHARSET() # see build/charset.py
 
     # FIXME: these should be tests for features, but the old build system just