diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/graphviz/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/graphviz/package.py
index 7af7da1881afad7301a70685e519bee419c7c3c6..ecf92620d4a82d333989a26e528137d47ec5c50c 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/graphviz/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/graphviz/package.py
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ class Graphviz(Package):
 
     version('2.38.0', '5b6a829b2ac94efcd5fa3c223ed6d3ae')
 
+    # By default disable optional Perl language support to prevent build issues
+    # related to missing Perl packages. If spack begins support for Perl in the
+    # future, this package can be updated to depend_on('perl') and the
+    # ncecessary devel packages.
+    variant('perl', default=False, description='Enable if you need the optional Perl language bindings.')
+
     parallel = False
 
     depends_on("swig")
@@ -14,8 +20,10 @@ class Graphviz(Package):
     depends_on("ghostscript")
 
     def install(self, spec, prefix):
-        configure("--prefix=%s" %prefix)
+        options = ['--prefix=%s' % prefix]
+        if not '+perl' in spec:
+            options.append('--disable-perl')
 
+        configure(*options)
         make()
         make("install")
-