diff --git a/acinclude.m4 b/acinclude.m4
index fa6f534de..69e61e0e9 100644
--- a/acinclude.m4
+++ b/acinclude.m4
@@ -14,6 +14,17 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
+dnl OVS_ENABLE_WERROR
+AC_DEFUN([OVS_ENABLE_WERROR],
+  [AC_ARG_ENABLE(
+     [Werror],
+     [AC_HELP_STRING([--enable-Werror], [Add -Werror to CFLAGS])],
+     [], [enable_Werror=no])
+   AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS_PRE(
+     [if test "X$enable_Werror" = Xyes; then
+        CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -Werror"
+      fi])])
+
 dnl OVS_CHECK_LINUX26
 dnl
 dnl Configure linux kernel source tree 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 5a2b5c0c4..5b5f47ed9 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ OVS_ENABLE_OPTION([-Wmissing-field-initializers])
 OVS_ENABLE_OPTION([-Wno-override-init])
 OVS_CONDITIONAL_CC_OPTION([-Wno-unused], [HAVE_WNO_UNUSED])
 OVS_CONDITIONAL_CC_OPTION([-Wno-unused-parameter], [HAVE_WNO_UNUSED_PARAMETER])
+OVS_ENABLE_WERROR
 
 AC_ARG_VAR(KARCH, [Kernel Architecture String])
 AC_SUBST(KARCH)