diff --git a/src/discover/discover.ml b/src/discover/discover.ml
index f2e0b92..913d964 100644
--- a/src/discover/discover.ml
+++ b/src/discover/discover.ml
@@ -14,7 +14,11 @@ let () =
   main
     ~name:"discover"
     ~args:[ "-o", Set_string output, "FILENAME output file" ]
-    (fun c ->
-       let has_popcnt = c_test c ~c_flags:[ "-mpopcnt" ] program in
+    (fun _c ->
+       let f,oc = Filename.open_temp_file "baseconf" ".c" in
+       let has_popcnt =
+         Fun.protect ~finally:(fun () -> close_out oc; Sys.remove f)
+           (fun () -> output_string oc program; flush oc;
+             Sys.command (Printf.sprintf "cc %s -mpopcnt -o /dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1" f) = 0) in
        Flags.write_sexp !output (if has_popcnt then [ "-mpopcnt" ] else []))
 ;;