diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 85549d12413d00cdce9132dd958b3b41f8bcb7b3..7fec59cb007368a4cdeec25a2402edc832ea439d 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -740,6 +740,16 @@ if test -z "$target_list" ; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
+feature_not_found() {
+  feature=$1
+
+  echo "ERROR"
+  echo "ERROR: User requested feature $feature"
+  echo "ERROR: configure was not able to found it"
+  echo "ERROR"
+  exit 1;
+}
+
 if test -z "$cross_prefix" ; then
 
 # ---