diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 18006f0865..59d1ade2d3 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -7527,6 +7527,46 @@ cat <<EOD >config.status
 # Compiler output produced by configure, useful for debugging
 # configure, is in config.log if it exists.
 EOD
+
+preserve_env() {
+    envname=$1
+
+    eval envval=\$$envname
+
+    if test -n "$envval"
+    then
+	echo "$envname='$envval'" >> config.status
+	echo "export $envname" >> config.status
+    else
+	echo "unset $envname" >> config.status
+    fi
+}
+
+# Preserve various env variables that influence what
+# features/build target configure will detect
+preserve_env AR
+preserve_env AS
+preserve_env CC
+preserve_env CPP
+preserve_env CXX
+preserve_env INSTALL
+preserve_env LD
+preserve_env LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+preserve_env LIBTOOL
+preserve_env MAKE
+preserve_env NM
+preserve_env OBJCOPY
+preserve_env PATH
+preserve_env PKG_CONFIG
+preserve_env PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
+preserve_env PKG_CONFIG_PATH
+preserve_env PYTHON
+preserve_env SDL_CONFIG
+preserve_env SDL2_CONFIG
+preserve_env SMBD
+preserve_env STRIP
+preserve_env WINDRES
+
 printf "exec" >>config.status
 printf " '%s'" "$0" "$@" >>config.status
 echo ' "$@"' >>config.status