diff --git a/src/pl/plperl/GNUmakefile b/src/pl/plperl/GNUmakefile
index b6310d76738..558c764aadb 100644
--- a/src/pl/plperl/GNUmakefile
+++ b/src/pl/plperl/GNUmakefile
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ plperl_opmask.h: plperl_opmask.pl
 
 perlchunks.h: $(PERLCHUNKS)
 	@if [ x"$(perl_privlibexp)" = x"" ]; then echo "configure switch --with-perl was not specified."; exit 1; fi
-	$(PERL) $(srcdir)/text2macro.pl --strip='^(\#.*|\s*)$$' $^ > $@
+	$(PERL) $(srcdir)/text2macro.pl $^ > $@
 
 all: all-lib
 
diff --git a/src/pl/plperl/meson.build b/src/pl/plperl/meson.build
index 6b4fa229c4a..006f7356e6b 100644
--- a/src/pl/plperl/meson.build
+++ b/src/pl/plperl/meson.build
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ plperl_sources += custom_target('perlchunks.h',
   input: files('plc_perlboot.pl', 'plc_trusted.pl'),
   output: 'perlchunks.h',
   capture: true,
-  command: [perl, files('text2macro.pl'), '--strip=^(\#.*|\s*)$', '@INPUT@']
+  command: [perl, files('text2macro.pl'), '@INPUT@']
 )
 
 plperl_sources += custom_target('plperl_opmask.h',
diff --git a/src/pl/plperl/text2macro.pl b/src/pl/plperl/text2macro.pl
index c6240af69c7..ee65eed3638 100644
--- a/src/pl/plperl/text2macro.pl
+++ b/src/pl/plperl/text2macro.pl
@@ -15,14 +15,13 @@ Options:
 
   --prefix=S   - add prefix S to the names of the macros
   --name=S     - use S as the macro name (assumes only one file)
-  --strip=S    - don't include lines that match perl regex S
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
 
 Reads one or more text files and outputs a corresponding series of C
 pre-processor macro definitions. Each macro defines a string literal that
 contains the contents of the corresponding text file. The basename of the text
-file as capitalized and used as the name of the macro, along with an optional prefix.
+file is capitalized and used as the name of the macro, along with an optional prefix.
 
 =cut
 
@@ -34,9 +33,12 @@ use Getopt::Long;
 GetOptions(
 	'prefix=s' => \my $opt_prefix,
 	'name=s' => \my $opt_name,
-	'strip=s' => \my $opt_strip,
 	'selftest!' => sub { exit selftest() },) or exit 1;
 
+# This was once a command-line option, but meson is obstreperous
+# about passing backslashes through custom targets.
+my $opt_strip = '^(#.*|\s*)$';
+
 die "No text files specified"
   unless @ARGV;