diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 092db19e1d..adebad3a05 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 2000-01-12  Jean-Marc Lasgouttes  <Jean-Marc.Lasgouttes@inria.fr>
 
+	* config/lyxinclude.m4 (LYX_FUNC_PUTENV_ARGTYPE): fix the macro,
+	which was bogus for several reasons.
+
 	* src/LaTeX.C (scanAux): fix the regular expression used to scan
 	.aux files. 
 	(runBibTeX): ditto.
diff --git a/acinclude.m4 b/acinclude.m4
index 1c78ee274b..7ae3e626d9 100644
--- a/acinclude.m4
+++ b/acinclude.m4
@@ -616,8 +616,9 @@ AC_DEFUN(LYX_FUNC_PUTENV_ARGTYPE,
 [AC_MSG_CHECKING([type of argument for putenv()])
  AC_CACHE_VAL(lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg,dnl
   [AC_TRY_COMPILE(dnl
-[#include <cstdlib>
-extern int putenv(const char *);],,dnl
+[#include <cstdlib>],
+[char const * foo = "bar";
+ putenv(foo);],dnl
    [lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg='char const *'],[lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg='char *'])])
  AC_MSG_RESULT($lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg)
  AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(PUTENV_TYPE_ARG,$lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg,dnl
diff --git a/config/lyxinclude.m4 b/config/lyxinclude.m4
index ea8fc35620..4ed9eaea66 100644
--- a/config/lyxinclude.m4
+++ b/config/lyxinclude.m4
@@ -616,8 +616,9 @@ AC_DEFUN(LYX_FUNC_PUTENV_ARGTYPE,
 [AC_MSG_CHECKING([type of argument for putenv()])
  AC_CACHE_VAL(lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg,dnl
   [AC_TRY_COMPILE(dnl
-[#include <cstdlib>
-extern int putenv(const char *);],,dnl
+[#include <cstdlib>],
+[char const * foo = "bar";
+ putenv(foo);],dnl
    [lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg='char const *'],[lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg='char *'])])
  AC_MSG_RESULT($lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg)
  AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED(PUTENV_TYPE_ARG,$lyx_cv_func_putenv_arg,dnl