diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index f3092888b..97ce75401 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -299,6 +299,8 @@ include_directories("${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src" ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
 
 # configure a header file to pass some of the CMake settings
 # to the source code
+include(CheckSymbolExists)
+check_symbol_exists(wordexp wordexp.h HAVE_WORDEXP)
 check_include_files(byteswap.h HAVE_BYTESWAP_H)
 check_include_file_cxx(experimental/filesystem HAVE_EXPERIMENTAL_FILESYSTEM)
 
diff --git a/config.h.in b/config.h.in
index a2ca9d0d3..6a7b06117 100644
--- a/config.h.in
+++ b/config.h.in
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 #cmakedefine HAVE_BYTESWAP_H
 #cmakedefine HAVE_FILESYSTEM
 #cmakedefine HAVE_EXPERIMENTAL_FILESYSTEM
+#cmakedefine HAVE_WORDEXP
diff --git a/src/celutil/util.cpp b/src/celutil/util.cpp
index c3ce4fd8e..b1ff7f3da 100644
--- a/src/celutil/util.cpp
+++ b/src/celutil/util.cpp
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 // as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
 // of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 
+#include <config.h>
 #include <celutil/debug.h>
 #include "util.h"
 #ifdef _WIN32
@@ -17,8 +18,10 @@
 #else
 #include <unistd.h>
 #include <pwd.h>
+#ifdef HAVE_WORDEXP
 #include <wordexp.h>
-#endif
+#endif // HAVE_WORDEXP
+#endif // !_WIN32
 
 using namespace std;
 
@@ -101,7 +104,7 @@ fs::path PathExp(const fs::path& filename)
     }
 
     return filename;
-#else
+#elif defined(HAVE_WORDEXP)
     wordexp_t result;
 
     switch(wordexp(filename.string().c_str(), &result, WRDE_NOCMD))
@@ -125,6 +128,8 @@ fs::path PathExp(const fs::path& filename)
     fs::path::string_type expanded(result.we_wordv[0]);
     wordfree(&result);
     return expanded;
+#else
+    return filename;
 #endif
 }