diff --git a/bootstrap b/bootstrap
index 43625b2..d429495 100755
--- a/bootstrap
+++ b/bootstrap
@@ -14,6 +14,49 @@ AUTOMAKE="${AUTOMAKE} --foreign --add-missing --copy"
 
 export AUTOMAKE AUTOCONF ACLOCAL AUTOHEADER
 
+# Get the avr-gcc to use.  Do NOT assume the environment has CC set,
+# because if the user exported CC before running bootstrap, that CC
+# will remain in the environment after this script and might confuse
+# other scripts.
+
+# Consume all arguments to support CC=$mypath/xgcc -B $mypath
+
+if test -z "$*"; then
+    CC="avr-gcc"
+else
+    CC="$*"
+fi
+
+# Check similar to the one in configure.ac to ensure we've got
+# something that looks like avr-gcc.
+
+bad_cc ()
+{
+    quot='"'
+    echo "error: wrong C compiler found or specified: ${quot}${CC}${quot}"
+    exit 1
+}
+
+case "${CC}" in
+    *gcc*)
+	case "X`${CC} -dumpmachine`X" in
+            XavrX) ;;
+            *) bad_cc ;;
+	esac ;;
+    *) bad_cc ;;
+esac
+
+# Export CC so that devtools can use it.
+export CC
+
+# Notify the user about the compiler version.
+echo "avr compiler: `$CC --version | head -n 1`"
+
+# Write the compiler to a file so configure can pick it up.
+# This is needed to make sure that bootstrap and configure
+# are using the same compiler and same features.
+echo "$CC" > cc.btstrp
+
 # to see what is executed
 set -x
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 174fbeb..5b6703d 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -136,6 +136,33 @@ m4_if(m4_defn([m4_PACKAGE_VERSION]), [2.64],
 
 # Checks for programs.
 
+# The bootstrap scripts runs before this one and also runs autoconf.
+# As bootstrap makes assumptions about the compiler, the following
+# lines ensure that configure will use the same compiler as bootstrap.
+# The nuisance is that autoconf does not provide any useful arguments
+# to ship information from the caller of autoconf (bootstrap) to here,
+# hence bootstrap wrote the used CC to cc.btstrp.  Pick it up now.
+
+AC_MSG_CHECKING([which compiler was used during bootstrap])
+
+if test -f ${srcdir}/cc.btstrp; then
+   cc_boot="`cat ${srcdir}/cc.btstrp`"
+   AC_MSG_RESULT([${cc_boot}])
+else
+    AC_MSG_RESULT([no bootstrap was run])
+    AC_MSG_ERROR([you must run bootstrap before configure])
+fi
+
+if test -n "${CC}"; then
+   AC_MSG_ERROR([setting CC on the command line or in the environment is not
+        supported. if you want to use a special version of avr-gcc, please
+	run "bootstrap my-avr-gcc" before configure])
+fi
+
+CC="${cc_boot}"
+
+AC_MSG_NOTICE([bootstrap implies CC=${CC}])
+
 AC_PROG_CC
 AC_CHECK_TOOL(AS, as, as)
 AM_PROG_AS