diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0f799bcd2..fabd0bbc4 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -531,6 +531,9 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE([benchmarks],
                               are timed. We use these tests to check netCDF performance.])])
 test "x$enable_benchmarks" = xyes || enable_benchmarks=no
 AC_MSG_RESULT($enable_benchmarks)
+if test "x$enable_netcdf4" = xno ; then
+AC_MSG_ERROR([Can't use benchmarks if netCDF-4 is disabled.])
+fi
 AM_CONDITIONAL(BUILD_BENCHMARKS, [test x$enable_benchmarks = xyes])
 
 # Does the user want to use extreme numbers in testing.
diff --git a/nc_perf/CMakeLists.txt b/nc_perf/CMakeLists.txt
index 0d067b236..acfc32d3d 100644
--- a/nc_perf/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/nc_perf/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -26,11 +26,9 @@ FOREACH(CTEST ${NC4_TESTS})
   add_bin_test(nc_test4 ${CTEST})
 ENDFOREACH()
 
-# IF(ENABLE_METADATA_PERF)
-#   build_bin_test(bigmeta)
-#   build_bin_test(openbigmeta)
-#   build_bin_test(tst_attsperf)
-#   add_sh_test(nc_test4 perftest)
-# ENDIF()
+build_bin_test(bigmeta)
+build_bin_test(openbigmeta)
+build_bin_test(tst_attsperf)
+add_sh_test(nc_test4 perftest)
 
 ADD_EXTRA_DIST(run_par_test.sh.in)
diff --git a/nc_perf/Makefile.am b/nc_perf/Makefile.am
index ed68ef62d..92e1549d7 100644
--- a/nc_perf/Makefile.am
+++ b/nc_perf/Makefile.am
@@ -2,10 +2,11 @@
 # Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Unidata See COPYRIGHT file for
 # conditions of use.
 #
-# This directory holds tests for netCDF-4. It is skipped if netCDF-4
-# is not enabled.
+# This directory holds performance tests for netCDF-4. It is only
+# built for netCDF-4 builds that use the --enable-benchmarks configure
+# option.
 #
-# Ed Hartnett, Ward Fisher
+# Ed Hartnett 3/18/19
 
 # Put together AM_CPPFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS.
 include $(top_srcdir)/lib_flags.am
diff --git a/nc_test4/CMakeLists.txt b/nc_test4/CMakeLists.txt
index 52d54b0fc..f562b3aa1 100644
--- a/nc_test4/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/nc_test4/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -91,11 +91,4 @@ IF(TEST_PARALLEL4)
   add_sh_test(nc_test4 run_par_test)
 ENDIF()
 
-# IF(ENABLE_METADATA_PERF)
-#   build_bin_test(bigmeta)
-#   build_bin_test(openbigmeta)
-#   build_bin_test(tst_attsperf)
-#   add_sh_test(nc_test4 perftest)
-# ENDIF()
-
 ADD_EXTRA_DIST(findplugin.in run_par_test.sh.in)