diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/perl/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/perl/package.py
index ae47c8ce039295302e925b7268bea58623612648..5333a92f3c07003f76524280f2a460fb5de9bd10 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/perl/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/perl/package.py
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ class Perl(Package):  # Perl doesn't use Autotools, it should subclass Package
     extendable = True
 
     depends_on('gdbm')
+    depends_on('berkeley-db')
 
     # there has been a long fixed issue with 5.22.0 with regard to the ccflags
     # definition.  It is well documented here: