diff --git a/src/it/it0013-gnu-executable/pom.xml b/src/it/it0013-gnu-executable/pom.xml
index 7573a8f70..15fa81b9e 100644
--- a/src/it/it0013-gnu-executable/pom.xml
+++ b/src/it/it0013-gnu-executable/pom.xml
@@ -57,6 +57,9 @@
               <run>true</run>
             </library>
           </libraries>
+	<gnuConfigureArgs>
+		"--with-pkginfo=GNU Executable Integration Test"
+	</gnuConfigureArgs>	
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
diff --git a/src/it/it0013-gnu-executable/src/gnu/configure.ac b/src/it/it0013-gnu-executable/src/gnu/configure.ac
index 97fc6b9ad..69ba0b51d 100644
--- a/src/it/it0013-gnu-executable/src/gnu/configure.ac
+++ b/src/it/it0013-gnu-executable/src/gnu/configure.ac
@@ -8,5 +8,14 @@ AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE
 
 AC_PROG_CC
 
+AC_ARG_WITH(pkginfo,
+  AC_HELP_STRING([--with-pkginfo=PKG],
+                 [Package information string]),
+  [case "$withval" in
+    (yes) AC_MSG_ERROR([package information not specified]) ;;
+    (*) PKG_INFO="$withval" ;;
+   esac])
+AC_SUBST(PKG_INFO)
+
 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile)
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/github/maven_nar/NarGnuConfigureMojo.java b/src/main/java/com/github/maven_nar/NarGnuConfigureMojo.java
index c4f09dd03..ef15f1331 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/github/maven_nar/NarGnuConfigureMojo.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/github/maven_nar/NarGnuConfigureMojo.java
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.regex.*;
 
 import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException;
 import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoFailureException;
@@ -154,7 +157,14 @@ public final void narExecute() throws MojoExecutionException, MojoFailureExcepti
 
         // create the array to hold constant and additional args
         if (this.gnuConfigureArgs != null) {
-          final String[] a = this.gnuConfigureArgs.split(" ");
+          List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
+          Matcher m = Pattern.compile("([^\"]\\S*|\".+?\")\\s*").matcher(this.gnuConfigureArgs);
+          // strip double quotes
+          while (m.find()) {
+            list.add(m.group(1).replace("\"", ""));
+          }
+          String[] a = new String[list.size()];
+          a = list.toArray(a);
           args = new String[a.length + 2];
 
           System.arraycopy(a, 0, args, 2, a.length);