diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index 3ac0edb..9504f65 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -13,7 +13,10 @@
 - the video refresher loader code in src/vid_menu.c needs cleaning up, it's
   utter bollocks at the moment.  all the structs are very fragile, depending
   on specific ordering of each element.
-- fix va_list as per  http://gozer.quakeforge.net/list-archives/quakeforge-cvs/2002-April/000151.html, http://www.quakeforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/quakeforge/libs/util/dstring.c.diff?r1=1.8&r2=1.9
+- do va_list audit -- check that argptr isn't used twice (as per 
+http://gozer.quakeforge.net/list-archives/quakeforge-cvs/2002-April/000151.html
+  Everything seems to be fine, someone with a PPC machine will probably want
+  to double check this.
 - investigate the possibility of savegames not being tied to a particular build
 - fix software assembler when building without --disable-asm on i386
 - split out assembler per arch/os (we currently have gas i386 and win i386)
diff --git a/acinclude.m4 b/acinclude.m4
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..360d58d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/acinclude.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+dnl $Id$
+dnl
+dnl Copyright (c) 2002 The Quakeforge Project.
+
+dnl Checks if function/macro va_copy() is available
+dnl Defines HAVE_VA_COPY on success.
+AC_DEFUN(AC_FUNC_VA_COPY,
+	[AC_CACHE_CHECK([for va_copy], ac_cv_func_va_copy,
+		[AC_TRY_LINK([
+#ifdef HAVE_STDARG_H
+# include <stdarg.h>
+#else
+# include <varargs.h>
+#endif],
+			[
+			va_list a, b;
+			va_copy(a, b);],
+			[ac_cv_func_va_copy=yes],
+			[ac_cv_func_va_copy=no])])
+if test $ac_cv_func_va_copy = yes; then
+	AC_DEFINE(HAVE_VA_COPY, 1, [Define if va_copy is available])
+fi])
+
+dnl Checks if function/macro __va_copy() is available
+dnl Defines HAVE__VA_COPY on success.
+AC_DEFUN(AC_FUNC__VA_COPY,
+	[AC_CACHE_CHECK([for __va_copy], ac_cv_func__va_copy,
+		[AC_TRY_LINK([
+#ifdef HAVE_STDARG_H
+# include <stdarg.h>
+#else
+# include <varargs.h>
+#endif],
+		[
+		va_list a,b;
+		__va_copy(a, b);],
+		[ac_cv_func__va_copy=yes],
+		[ac_cv_func__va_copy=no])])
+if test $ac_cv_func__va_copy = yes; then
+	AC_DEFINE(HAVE__VA_COPY, 1, [Define if __va_copy is available])
+fi])
+
+dnl Checks if va_list is an array
+dnl Devines VA_LIST_IS_ARRAY on success
+AC_DEFUN(AC_TYPE_VA_LIST,
+	[AC_CACHE_CHECK([if va_list is an array], ac_cv_type_va_list_array,
+		[AC_TRY_LINK([
+#ifdef HAVE_STDARG_H
+# include <stdarg.h>
+#else
+# include <varargs.h>
+#endif],
+		[
+		va_list a, b;
+		a = b;],
+		[ac_cv_type_va_list_array=no],
+		[ac_cv_type_va_list_array=yes])])
+if test $ac_cv_type_va_list_array = yes; then
+	AC_DEFINE(VA_LIST_IS_ARRAY, 1, [Define if va_list is an array])
+fi])
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 88682ae..f4defd4 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ AC_TYPE_SIZE_T
 AC_HEADER_TIME
 AC_STRUCT_TM
 AC_TYPE_UID_T
+AC_TYPE_VA_LIST
 
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(for underscore prefix in names)
 AC_TRY_LINK(
@@ -111,6 +112,8 @@ dnl -----------------------------
 #AC_FUNC_STAT
 #AC_FUNC_VPRINTF
 #AC_CHECK_FUNCS([bzero floor getcwd gethostbyname getmntent getpagesize gettimeofday memmove memset mkdir munmap pow putenv select socket sqrt strcasecmp strchr strdup strerror strrchr strstr])
+AC_FUNC_VA_COPY
+AC_FUNC__VA_COPY
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS(dlopen)
 
 DL_LIBS=""