diff --git a/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c b/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c
index 3aa551cdbe0..3a34e648815 100644
--- a/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c
+++ b/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
  *	  ENHANCEMENTS, OR MODIFICATIONS.
  *
  * IDENTIFICATION
- *	  $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c,v 1.40.2.1 2005/01/26 17:09:21 tgl Exp $
+ *	  $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c,v 1.40.2.2 2009/06/04 16:01:23 adunstan Exp $
  *
  **********************************************************************/
 
@@ -214,12 +214,18 @@ plperl_init_interp(void)
 		"sub ::mkunsafefunc {return eval(qq[ sub { $_[0] } ]); }"
 	};
 
+	int nargs = 3;
+
+#ifdef PERL_SYS_INIT3
+	PERL_SYS_INIT3(&nargs, (char ***) &embedding, NULL);
+#endif
+
 	plperl_interp = perl_alloc();
 	if (!plperl_interp)
 		elog(ERROR, "could not allocate perl interpreter");
 
 	perl_construct(plperl_interp);
-	perl_parse(plperl_interp, plperl_init_shared_libs, 3, embedding, NULL);
+	perl_parse(plperl_interp, plperl_init_shared_libs, nargs, embedding, NULL);
 	perl_run(plperl_interp);
 
 	/************************************************************