--- a/src/auto/configure
+++ b/src/auto/configure
@@ -741,6 +741,7 @@ SHELL'
 ac_subst_files=''
 ac_user_opts='
 enable_option_checking
+enable_fail_if_missing
 enable_darwin
 with_mac_arch
 with_developer_dir
@@ -1418,6 +1419,8 @@ Optional Features:
   --disable-option-checking  ignore unrecognized --enable/--with options
   --disable-FEATURE       do not include FEATURE (same as --enable-FEATURE=no)
   --enable-FEATURE[=ARG]  include FEATURE [ARG=yes]
+  --enable-fail-if-missing    Fail if dependencies on additional features
+     specified on the command line are missing.
   --disable-darwin        Disable Darwin (Mac OS X) support.
   --disable-selinux	  Don't check for SELinux support.
   --disable-xsmp          Disable XSMP session management
@@ -3949,6 +3952,19 @@ if test $ac_cv_header_sys_wait_h = yes; 
 fi
 
 
+
+{ $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: checking --enable-fail-if-missing argument" >&5
+$as_echo_n "checking --enable-fail-if-missing argument... " >&6; }
+# Check whether --enable-fail_if_missing was given.
+if test "${enable_fail_if_missing+set}" = set; then :
+  enableval=$enable_fail_if_missing; fail_if_missing="yes"
+else
+  fail_if_missing="no"
+fi
+
+{ $as_echo "$as_me:${as_lineno-$LINENO}: result: $fail_if_missing" >&5
+$as_echo "$fail_if_missing" >&6; }
+
 if test -z "$CFLAGS"; then
   CFLAGS="-O"
   test "$GCC" = yes && CFLAGS="-O2 -fno-strength-reduce -Wall"
@@ -4727,6 +4743,9 @@ fi
       LUA_CFLAGS="-DDYNAMIC_LUA_DLL=\\\"liblua${vi_cv_version_lua}.so$LUA_SONAME\\\" $LUA_CFLAGS"
     fi
   fi
+  if test "$fail_if_missing" = "yes" -a -z "$LUA_SRC"; then
+    as_fn_error "could not configure lua" "$LINENO" 5
+  fi
 
 
 
@@ -5140,6 +5159,10 @@ rm -f core conftest.err conftest.$ac_obj
       PERL_CFLAGS="-DDYNAMIC_PERL_DLL=\\\"$libperl\\\" $PERL_CFLAGS"
     fi
   fi
+
+  if test "$fail_if_missing" = "yes" -a "$perl_ok" != "yes"; then
+    as_fn_error "could not configure perl" "$LINENO" 5
+  fi
 fi
 
 
@@ -5429,6 +5452,10 @@ rm -f core conftest.err conftest.$ac_obj
 $as_echo "too old" >&6; }
     fi
   fi
+
+  if test "$fail_if_missing" = "yes" -a "$python_ok" != "yes"; then
+    as_fn_error "could not configure python" "$LINENO" 5
+  fi
 fi
 
 
@@ -6216,6 +6243,9 @@ fi
 $as_echo "too old; need Tcl version 8.0 or later" >&6; }
     fi
   fi
+  if test "$fail_if_missing" = "yes" -a -z "$TCL_SRC"; then
+    as_fn_error "could not configure Tcl" "$LINENO" 5
+  fi
 fi
 
 
@@ -6353,6 +6383,10 @@ fi
 $as_echo "too old; need Ruby version 1.6.0 or later" >&6; }
     fi
   fi
+
+  if test "$fail_if_missing" = "yes" -a -z "$RUBY_OBJ"; then
+    as_fn_error "could not configure Ruby" "$LINENO" 5
+  fi
 fi