diff --git a/libraries/libapparmor/configure.ac b/libraries/libapparmor/configure.ac
index 16460d92f..1a317ce4e 100644
--- a/libraries/libapparmor/configure.ac
+++ b/libraries/libapparmor/configure.ac
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@ PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG
 
 AC_PATH_PROG([SWIG], [swig])
 
+sinclude(m4/ac_podchecker.m4)
+PROG_PODCHECKER
+
 sinclude(m4/ac_pod2man.m4)
 PROG_POD2MAN
 
diff --git a/libraries/libapparmor/m4/ac_podchecker.m4 b/libraries/libapparmor/m4/ac_podchecker.m4
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7fd3b878c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libraries/libapparmor/m4/ac_podchecker.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+AC_DEFUN([PROG_PODCHECKER],[
+   AC_CHECK_PROG(PODCHECKER,podchecker,podchecker,no)
+   if test "$PODCHECKER" = "no"; then
+      AC_MSG_ERROR([
+The podchecker program was not found in the default path.  podchecker is part of
+Perl, which can be retrieved from:
+
+    https://www.perl.org
+])
+   fi
+])