diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index b7ba7d78..9bd8f5ba 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -240,9 +240,9 @@ fi
 
 # Check for gcc version being >= 2.96.
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(version of $_cc)
-cc_version=`$_cc -dumpversion 2> /dev/null | head -n 1`
-cc_major=`echo $cc_version | cut -d'.' -f1 | sed s/"^\([0-9]+\).*$"/"\1"/`
-cc_minor=`echo $cc_version | cut -d'.' -f2 | sed s/"^\([0-9]+\).*$"/"\1"/`
+cc_version=`getgccver $_cc version`
+cc_major=`getgccver $_cc major`
+cc_minor=`getgccver $_cc minor`
 if test -z "$cc_version"; then
 	cc_version="v. ?.??"
 	cc_major=1
diff --git a/getgccver b/getgccver
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..ccae864a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/getgccver
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+if test -z "$1"; then
+	echo "This program is only to be run by the ./configure script."
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+# Get the gcc version. Can't do this in configure.ac as automake refuses to
+# preserve the square brackets while generating the configure script.
+ver_str=`$1 -dumpversion 2> /dev/null | head -n 1`
+
+case $2 in
+version)
+	echo ${ver_str}
+	;;
+major)
+	echo `echo ${ver_str} | cut -d'.' -f1 | sed s/"^\([0-9]*\).*$"/"\1"/`
+	;;
+minor)
+	echo `echo ${ver_str} | cut -d'.' -f2 | sed s/"^\([0-9]*\).*$"/"\1"/`
+	;;
+*)
+	echo "This program is only to be run by the ./configure script."
+	exit 1
+	;;
+esac
+exit 0