diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index aadf63f04f69d127e51c48a2e0c7b9878b338516..36d68919949fe07ec4168b07ed937150e0076f14 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1058,8 +1058,12 @@ AC_HELP_STRING([--disable-ares],[Disable ares for name lookups]),
             AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(ares)
             aresinc=`cd $srcdir/ares && pwd`
             CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -I$aresinc"
-            areslib=`cd ares && pwd`
-            LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L$areslib"
+
+            dnl the pwd= below cannot 'cd' into the ares dir to get the full
+            dnl path to it, since it may not exist yet if we build outside of
+            dnl the source tree
+            pwd=`pwd`
+            LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L$pwd/ares"
          fi
        else
          CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -I$enableval/include"