diff --git a/configure b/configure
index f508e3b4ea..e0176e9f78 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -5551,7 +5551,7 @@ H5_VERSION=`cut -d' ' -f3 $srcdir/README |head -1`
  CONFIG_DATE=`date`
 
 # User doing the configuration
- CONFIG_USER="$USER@`hostname`"
+ CONFIG_USER="`whoami`@`hostname`"
 if test "X-$ORGANIZATION" != "X-"; then
     CONFIG_USER="$CONFIG_USER at $ORGANIZATION"
 fi
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index cf4a7e70cb..3037c5988f 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -747,7 +747,7 @@ AC_SUBST(H5_VERSION)
 AC_SUBST(CONFIG_DATE) CONFIG_DATE=`date`
 
 # User doing the configuration
-AC_SUBST(CONFIG_USER) CONFIG_USER="$USER@`hostname`"
+AC_SUBST(CONFIG_USER) CONFIG_USER="`whoami`@`hostname`"
 if test "X-$ORGANIZATION" != "X-"; then
     CONFIG_USER="$CONFIG_USER at $ORGANIZATION"
 fi