diff --git a/win32/build/confutils.js b/win32/build/confutils.js
index 2860844650e32..e237b6a1f7fc6 100644
--- a/win32/build/confutils.js
+++ b/win32/build/confutils.js
@@ -53,6 +53,9 @@ var PHP_MAKEFILE_FRAGMENTS = PHP_SRC_DIR + "\\Makefile.fragments.w32";
    and manifest. */
 var WINVER = "0x0601"; /* 7/2008r2 */
 
+// There's a minimum requirement for bison.
+var MINBISON = "3.0.0";
+
 // There's a minimum requirement for re2c..
 var MINRE2C = "0.13.4";
 
@@ -180,6 +183,8 @@ function probe_binary(EXE, what)
 	var command = 'cmd /c ""' + EXE;
 	if (what == "version") {
 		command = command + '" -v"';
+	} else if (what == "longversion") {
+		command = command + '" --version"';
 	}
 	var version = execute(command + '" 2>&1"');
 
@@ -3010,7 +3015,26 @@ function toolset_setup_project_tools()
 	// we don't want to define LIB, as that will override the default library path
 	// that is set in that env var
 	PATH_PROG('lib', null, 'MAKE_LIB');
-	if (!PATH_PROG('bison')) {
+
+	var BISON = PATH_PROG('bison');
+	if (BISON) {
+		var BISONVERS = probe_binary(BISON, "longversion");
+		STDOUT.WriteLine('  Detected bison version ' + BISONVERS);
+
+		if (BISONVERS.match(/^\d+.\d+$/)) {
+			BISONVERS += ".0";
+		}
+
+		var hm = BISONVERS.match(/(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)/);
+		var nm = MINBISON.match(/(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)/);
+
+		var intvers =  (hm[1]-0)*10000 + (hm[2]-0)*100 + (hm[3]-0);
+		var intmin =  (nm[1]-0)*10000 + (nm[2]-0)*100 + (nm[3]-0);
+
+		if (intvers < intmin) {
+			ERROR('The minimum bison version requirement is ' + MINBISON);
+		}
+	} else {
 		ERROR('bison is required')
 	}