diff --git a/curl.changes b/curl.changes
index a3f0617..baf55d7 100644
--- a/curl.changes
+++ b/curl.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mon Jul  9 13:12:24 UTC 2012 - dnh@opensuse.org
+
+- define _GNU_SOURCE for oS/SLES <= 11.4, as O_CLOEXEC is
+  defined inside a ifdef __USE_GNU
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Sat May 12 23:24:56 UTC 2012 - jengelh@inai.de
 
diff --git a/curl.spec b/curl.spec
index 353292e..9e39b2b 100644
--- a/curl.spec
+++ b/curl.spec
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ autoreconf -fi
 # (currently, libtool sets link_all_deplibs=(yes|unknown) everywhere,
 # will hopefully change in the future)
 sed -i 's/link_all_deplibs=unknown/link_all_deplibs=no/' configure
-%configure \
+%configure CFLAGS="%{optflags} -D_GNU_SOURCE=1" \
 	--enable-ipv6 \
 %if %{with openssl}
 	--with-ssl \