diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 87ee1906a6..25ca425762 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+3271.	[port]		darwin: mksymtbl is not always stable, loop several
+			times before giving up.  mksymtbl was using non
+			portable perl to covert 64 bit hex strings. [RT #27653]
+
 3271.	[func]		New "rndc zonestatus" command prints information
 			about the specified zone. [RT #21671]
 
diff --git a/make/rules.in b/make/rules.in
index c736967845..9763ce6c84 100644
--- a/make/rules.in
+++ b/make/rules.in
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 # OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
 # PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 
-# $Id: rules.in,v 1.72 2011/12/20 05:24:18 marka Exp $
+# $Id: rules.in,v 1.73 2012/01/31 04:08:07 marka Exp $
 
 ###
 ### Common Makefile rules for BIND 9.
@@ -214,7 +214,21 @@ FINALBUILDCMD = if [ X"${MKSYMTBL_PROGRAM}" = X -o X"$${MAKE_SYMTABLE:-${ALWAYS_
 		-o $@tmp2 $${BASEOBJS} $@-symtbl.@O@ $${LIBS0} ${NOSYMLIBS}; \
 		${MKSYMTBL_PROGRAM} ${top_srcdir}/util/mksymtbl.pl \
 		-o $@-symtbl2.c $@tmp2; \
-		diff $@-symtbl.c $@-symtbl2.c || exit 1;\
+		count=0; \
+		until diff $@-symtbl.c $@-symtbl2.c > /dev/null ; \
+		do \
+			count=`expr $$count + 1` ; \
+			test $$count = 42 && exit 1 ; \
+			rm -f $@-symtbl.c $@-symtbl.@O@; \
+			${MKSYMTBL_PROGRAM} ${top_srcdir}/util/mksymtbl.pl \
+			-o $@-symtbl.c $@tmp2 || exit 1; \
+			$(MAKE) $@-symtbl.@O@ || exit 1; \
+			${LIBTOOL_MODE_LINK} ${PURIFY} ${CC} ${CFLAGS} \
+			${LDFLAGS} -o $@tmp2 $${BASEOBJS} $@-symtbl.@O@ \
+			$${LIBS0} ${NOSYMLIBS}; \
+			${MKSYMTBL_PROGRAM} ${top_srcdir}/util/mksymtbl.pl \
+			-o $@-symtbl2.c $@tmp2; \
+		done ; \
 		mv $@tmp2 $@; \
 		rm -f $@tmp0 $@tmp1 $@tmp2 $@-symtbl2.c; \
 	fi
diff --git a/util/mksymtbl.pl b/util/mksymtbl.pl
index 5a432ab0ea..1ad78be07d 100755
--- a/util/mksymtbl.pl
+++ b/util/mksymtbl.pl
@@ -14,13 +14,13 @@
 # OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR
 # PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 
-# $Id: mksymtbl.pl,v 1.4 2009/10/05 22:39:09 jinmei Exp $
+# $Id: mksymtbl.pl,v 1.5 2012/01/31 04:08:07 marka Exp $
 
 use strict;
 use diagnostics;
 $^W = 1;
 
-my $rev = '$Id: mksymtbl.pl,v 1.4 2009/10/05 22:39:09 jinmei Exp $';
+my $rev = '$Id: mksymtbl.pl,v 1.5 2012/01/31 04:08:07 marka Exp $';
 $rev =~ s/\$//g;
 $rev =~ s/,v//g;
 $rev =~ s/Id: //;
@@ -95,11 +95,25 @@ while (<SYMBOLS>) {
 	}
 }
 
+sub lhex {
+	my $la = substr($a, -8);
+	my $lb = substr($b, -8);
+	my $ha = substr($a, 0, length($a) - length($la));
+	my $hb = substr($b, 0, length($b) - length($lb));
+	$ha = "0" if ($ha eq "");
+	$ha = "0" if ($hb eq "");
+	if (hex($ha) != hex($hb)) {
+		$la = $ha;
+		$lb = $hb;
+	}
+	hex($la) <=> hex($lb)
+}
+
 print TBLFILE "/*\n * Generated by $rev \n */\n";
 print TBLFILE "#include <isc/backtrace.h>\n";
 print TBLFILE "const int isc__backtrace_nsymbols = $nsyms;\n";
 print TBLFILE "const isc_backtrace_symmap_t isc__backtrace_symtable[] = {\n";
-foreach (sort {hex($a) <=> hex($b)} keys(%symmap)) {
+foreach (sort lhex keys(%symmap)) {
 	my ($addr, $symbol) = ($_, $symmap{$_});
 	if ($need_uscorefix && $symbol =~ /^_(.*)/) {
 		$symbol = $1;