diff --git a/src/Makefile.am b/src/Makefile.am
index 990c63420496ab4c6d6671b07d0dcfe784ab36be..c0b4d5d041bf3116fea4efaec2c118123c974fe3 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/Makefile.am
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ## Process this file with automake to produce Makefile.in
 
-## Copyright (C) 2005-2011 Red Hat, Inc.
+## Copyright (C) 2005-2012 Red Hat, Inc.
 ## See COPYING.LIB for the License of this software
 
 # No libraries with the exception of LIBXML should be listed
@@ -233,8 +233,12 @@ r2 = /\* <[[:xdigit:]]+> \S+:\d+ \*/
 
 PDWTAGS = \
 	$(AM_V_GEN)if (pdwtags --help) > /dev/null 2>&1; then		\
-	  pdwtags --verbose $(<:.lo=.$(OBJEXT))				\
-	    | perl -0777 -n						\
+	  pdwtags --verbose $(<:.lo=.$(OBJEXT))	> $(@F)-t1 2> $(@F)-t2;	\
+	  if test -s $(@F)-t2; then					\
+	    rm -rf $(@F)-t?;						\
+	    echo 'WARNING: pdwtags appears broken; skipping the $@ test' >&2;\
+	  else								\
+	    perl -0777 -n						\
 		-e 'foreach my $$p (split m!\n*(?:$(r1)|$(r2))\n!) {'	\
 		-e '  if ($$p =~ /^(struct|enum) (remote_|qemu_|virNet)/ ||' \
 		-e '      $$p =~ /^enum {/) {' \
@@ -257,9 +261,10 @@ PDWTAGS = \
 		-e '    exit 8;'					\
 		-e '  }'						\
 		-e '}'							\
-		> $(@F)-t;						\
-	  case $$? in 8) exit 0;; 0) ;; *) exit 1;; esac;		\
-	  diff -u $(@F)-t $@; st=$$?; rm -f $(@F)-t; exit $$st;		\
+		< $(@F)-t1 > $(@F)-t3;					\
+	    case $$? in 8) rm -f $(@F)-t?; exit 0;; 0) ;; *) exit 1;; esac;\
+	    diff -u $(@F)-t3 $@; st=$$?; rm -f $(@F)-t?; exit $$st;	\
+	  fi;								\
 	else								\
 	  echo 'WARNING: you lack pdwtags; skipping the $@ test' >&2;	\
 	  echo 'WARNING: install the dwarves package to get pdwtags' >&2; \