diff --git a/m4/ri-gcc-warnings.m4 b/m4/ri-gcc-warnings.m4
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7fbfa14c3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/m4/ri-gcc-warnings.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+dnl ri_GCC_WARNINGS()
+dnl
+dnl Adjust the CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS for various GCC versions
+
+AC_DEFUN([ri_GCC_WARNINGS],
+  [AC_ARG_ENABLE([gcc-warnings],
+    [AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-gcc-warnings[[[[=error]]]]],
+                    [enable additional gcc warning flags])],
+[
+if test x"$GCC" = x"yes"; then
+  ri_gcc_main=`echo __GNUC__ | $CPP -E - | grep -v ^\#`
+  ri_gcc_minor=`echo __GNUC_MINOR__ | $CPP -E - | grep -v ^\#`
+  
+  ri_cppflags=""
+  ri_cflags=""
+  ri_cxxflags=""
+  ri_bothflags=""
+
+  ri_gcc_v2_95="false"
+  test $ri_gcc_main -gt 2 && ri_gcc_v2_95="true"
+  test $ri_gcc_main -eq 2 && test $ri_gcc_minor -ge 95 && ri_gcc_v2_95="true"
+
+  ri_gcc_v3_2="false"
+  test $ri_gcc_main -gt 3 && ri_gcc_v3_2="true"
+  test $ri_gcc_main -eq 3 && test $ri_gcc_minor -ge 2 && ri_gcc_v3_2="true"
+
+  ri_gcc_v3_3="false"
+  test $ri_gcc_main -gt 3 && ri_gcc_v3_3="true"
+  test $ri_gcc_main -eq 3 && test $ri_gcc_minor -ge 3 && ri_gcc_v3_3="true"
+
+  ri_gcc_v3_4="false"
+  test $ri_gcc_main -gt 3 && ri_gcc_v3_4="true"
+  test $ri_gcc_main -eq 3 && test $ri_gcc_minor -ge 4 && ri_gcc_v3_4="true"
+
+  if $ri_gcc_v3_4; then
+    ri_bothflags="-Wextra -Wall -pedantic"
+  else
+    ri_bothflags="-W -Wall -pedantic"
+  fi
+
+  if $ri_gcc_v2_95; then
+    # the following options are taken from the gcc-2.95 info page
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wcast-align"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wcast-qual"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wmissing-prototypes"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wmultichar"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wpointer-arith"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wredundant-decls"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wshadow"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wsign-compare"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wundef"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wwrite-strings"
+    ri_cflags="$ri_cflags -Waggregate-return"
+    ri_cflags="$ri_cflags -Wbad-function-cast"
+    ri_cflags="$ri_cflags -Wmissing-declarations"
+    ri_cflags="$ri_cflags -Wnested-externs"
+    ri_cflags="$ri_cflags -Wstrict-prototypes"
+    ri_cflags="$ri_cflags -Wmissing-declarations"
+  fi
+
+  if $ri_gcc_v3_2; then
+    # the following options are taken from the gcc-3.2.1 info page
+    ri_cflags="$ri_cflags -Wdiv-by-zero"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wfloat-equal"
+  fi
+
+  if $ri_gcc_v3_3; then
+    # the following options are taken from the gcc-3.3.2 info page
+    ri_cppflags="$ri_cppflags -Wendif-labels"
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Wdisabled-optimization"
+  fi
+
+  if test x"$enable_gcc_warnings" = x"error"; then
+    ri_bothflags="$ri_bothflags -Werror"
+  fi
+
+  CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS $ri_cppflags"
+  CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $ri_bothflags $ri_cflags"
+  CXXFLAGS="$CXXFLAGS $ri_bothflags $ri_cxxflags"
+fi
+
+])])