diff --git a/configure b/configure
index d9aa84c6138..007a77a5f6c 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -2946,6 +2946,12 @@ if test x$with_system_zlib = xyes ; then
   noconfigdirs="$noconfigdirs zlib"
 fi
 
+# Don't compile the bundled readline/libreadline.a if --with-system-readline
+# is provided.
+if test x$with_system_readline = xyes ; then
+  noconfigdirs="$noconfigdirs readline"
+fi
+
 # some tools are so dependent upon X11 that if we're not building with X,
 # it's not even worth trying to configure, much less build, that tool.
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 2cff32e300e..1df410bba1f 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -247,6 +247,12 @@ if test x$with_system_zlib = xyes ; then
   noconfigdirs="$noconfigdirs zlib"
 fi
 
+# Don't compile the bundled readline/libreadline.a if --with-system-readline
+# is provided.
+if test x$with_system_readline = xyes ; then
+  noconfigdirs="$noconfigdirs readline"
+fi
+
 # some tools are so dependent upon X11 that if we're not building with X, 
 # it's not even worth trying to configure, much less build, that tool.