diff --git a/configure b/configure
index c702893894d69a4d4452f9951e45c7fa2fb1d7b5..9dd7f549159c25971d17e6c2b59e88e9290db017 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -8,7 +8,8 @@
 #
 
 # Prevent locale nonsense from breaking basic text processing.
-export LC_ALL=C
+LC_ALL=C
+export LC_ALL
 
 # make sure we are running under a compatible shell
 # try to make this part work with most shells