diff --git a/libltdl/config/ltmain.sh b/libltdl/config/ltmain.sh
index 63ae69d..36625c7 100644
--- a/libltdl/config/ltmain.sh
+++ b/libltdl/config/ltmain.sh
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ PROGRAM=libtool
 PACKAGE=libtool
 VERSION=2.4.2
 TIMESTAMP=""
+: ${DD=dd}
 package_revision=1.3337
 
 # Be Bourne compatible
@@ -1224,6 +1225,21 @@ func_enable_tag "$optarg"
 ##    Main.    ##
 ## ----------- ##
 
+# func_try_sizelim file n
+# try to write at most the first N bytes from FILE to the standard output when
+# possible, otherwise put whole file
+func_try_sizelim ()
+{
+  if test -n "$DD"; then
+    $DD if="$1" bs=$2 count=1 2>/dev/null
+    if test $? -eq 127; then
+      cat "$1" 2>/dev/null
+    fi
+  else
+    cat "$1" 2>/dev/null
+  fi
+}
+
 # func_lalib_p file
 # True iff FILE is a libtool `.la' library or `.lo' object file.
 # This function is only a basic sanity check; it will hardly flush out
@@ -1231,7 +1247,7 @@ func_enable_tag "$optarg"
 func_lalib_p ()
 {
     test -f "$1" &&
-      $SED -e 4q "$1" 2>/dev/null \
+      func_try_sizelim "$1" 4096 | $SED -e 4q 2>/dev/null \
         | $GREP "^# Generated by .*$PACKAGE" > /dev/null 2>&1
 }