diff --git a/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c b/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c
index 638c6ac7ff..8937e2ddbc 100644
--- a/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c
+++ b/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /**********************************************************************
  * plperl.c - perl as a procedural language for PostgreSQL
  *
- *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c,v 1.123.2.4 2008/01/22 20:19:53 adunstan Exp $
+ *	  $PostgreSQL: pgsql/src/pl/plperl/plperl.c,v 1.123.2.5 2009/06/04 16:00:33 adunstan Exp $
  *
  **********************************************************************/
 
@@ -380,6 +380,8 @@ plperl_init_interp(void)
 		"", "-e", PERLBOOT
 	};
 
+	int nargs = 3;
+
 #ifdef WIN32
 
 	/*
@@ -422,6 +424,11 @@ plperl_init_interp(void)
 	save_time = loc ? pstrdup(loc) : NULL;
 #endif
 
+#ifdef PERL_SYS_INIT3
+	/* only call this the first time through, as per perlembed man page */
+	if (interp_state == INTERP_NONE)
+		PERL_SYS_INIT3(&nargs, (char ***) &embedding, NULL);
+#endif
 
 	plperl_held_interp = perl_alloc();
 	if (!plperl_held_interp)
@@ -429,7 +436,7 @@ plperl_init_interp(void)
 
 	perl_construct(plperl_held_interp);
 	perl_parse(plperl_held_interp, plperl_init_shared_libs, 
-			   3, embedding, NULL);
+			   nargs, embedding, NULL);
 	perl_run(plperl_held_interp);
 
 	if (interp_state == INTERP_NONE)