diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 629fa611b..8aa3053d9 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -835,6 +835,25 @@ else
     AC_MSG_RESULT([no])
 fi
 
+# Determine if we are on a system which has a restricted
+# command line length.  This is true if we are building
+# under mingw or using the MS C compiler
+RESTRICTED_COMMAND_LINE_OPT=
+case "$host" in
+    *mingw*)
+        RESTRICTED_COMMAND_LINE_OPT=--restricted-command-line
+        ;;
+    *)
+        if test "$ac_microsoft" = "yes"
+        then
+            RESTRICTED_COMMAND_LINE_OPT=--restricted-command-line
+        else
+            RESTRICTED_COMMAND_LINE_OPT=
+        fi
+        ;;
+esac
+AC_SUBST(RESTRICTED_COMMAND_LINE_OPT)
+
 LDFLAGS_FOR_TRACE=
 LD_LIBFLAGS_FOR_TRACE=
 if test "$ac_microsoft" = "yes" ; then
diff --git a/scripts/Mercury.config.in b/scripts/Mercury.config.in
index e760759a2..0a7204af0 100644
--- a/scripts/Mercury.config.in
+++ b/scripts/Mercury.config.in
@@ -118,6 +118,7 @@ DEFAULT_MCFLAGS=\
 		--bytes-per-word "@BYTES_PER_WORD@" \
 		--sync-term-size "@SYNC_TERM_SIZE@" \
 		--dotnet-library-version "@MS_DOTNET_LIBRARY_VERSION@" \
+		@RESTRICTED_COMMAND_LINE_OPT@ \
 		@HAVE_DELAY_SLOT@ \
 		@HAVE_BOXED_FLOATS@ \
 		@MCFLAGS_FOR_CC@ \