diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/m4/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/m4/package.py
index 3890663ad1..9d522dfccf 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/m4/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/m4/package.py
@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@ class M4(Package):
 
     version('1.4.17', 'a5e9954b1dae036762f7b13673a2cf76')
 
-    depends_on('libsigsegv')
+    variant('sigsegv', default=True, description="Build the libsigsegv dependency")
+
+    depends_on('libsigsegv', when='+sigsegv')
 
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
         configure("--prefix=%s" % prefix)