diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index d690f95..62487e4 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ esac
      AC_CHECK_HEADERS(libgen.h sys/timeb.h posix/time.h sys/select.h nlist.h)
      AC_CHECK_HEADERS(sys/un.h)
      AC_CHECK_HEADERS(crypt.h)	
-     AC_CHECK_FUNCS(gettimeofday ftime nlist select setitimer sigaction)
+     AC_CHECK_FUNCS(gettimeofday ftime nlist select setitimer sigaction vasprintf)
      SCSH_SOCKLEN_T	
      AC_CHECK_FUNC(dlopen, AC_DEFINE(HAVE_DLOPEN),
 			   AC_CHECK_FUNC(nlist, [LIBOBJS="$LIBOBJS c/fake/libdl1.o"],
diff --git a/scsh/libscsh.c b/scsh/libscsh.c
index cf7f4b9..2aa91d3 100644
--- a/scsh/libscsh.c
+++ b/scsh/libscsh.c
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include "scheme48.h"
 #include "libscsh.h"
+#include "sysdep.h"
 
 s48_value s48_command_binding;
 s48_value s48_to_string_binding;
@@ -22,17 +23,25 @@ s48_value s48_vcommand (char* fmt, va_list ap)
   char* command;
   s48_value ret;
 
- if (vasprintf(&command, fmt, ap) == -1){
-   fprintf(stderr, "error in vasprintf\n");
-   exit(1);
-   }
+#ifdef HAVE_VASPRINTF  
+  if (vasprintf(&command, fmt, ap) == -1){
+    fprintf(stderr, "error in vasprintf\n");
+    exit(1);
+  }
+#else
+  command = (char *)calloc (1000, sizeof (char));
+  if (vsprintf(command, fmt, ap) == -1){
+    fprintf(stderr, "error in vsprintf\n");
+    exit(1);
+  }
+#endif
   fprintf (stderr,"The command is: %s\n", command);
   S48_SHARED_BINDING_CHECK (s48_command_binding);
-
+ 
   ret = s48_call_scheme (S48_SHARED_BINDING_REF (s48_command_binding),
 			 1,
-  			 s48_enter_string (command));
-
+			 s48_enter_string (command));
+ 
   free (command);
   va_end (ap);
   return ret;