diff --git a/bin/dunecontrol b/bin/dunecontrol
index ab16ba3154c1f821a0c3cbb6e435c893ed624167..396d6713fede5a00e8af8e5f6f12342e96803b5c 100755
--- a/bin/dunecontrol
+++ b/bin/dunecontrol
@@ -348,6 +348,21 @@ for command in $COMMANDS; do
   eval "run_$command () { run_default_$command; }"
 done
 
+#
+# Check whether we should use cmake for this particular value
+# and set LOCAL_USE_CMAKE accordingly.
+# We use cmake if USE_CMAKE is not set to no and the module has
+# CMake build infrastructure, i.e. a toplevel CMakeLists.txt
+#
+create_local_use_cmake() {
+  if test "x$USE_CMAKE" != "xno" && test -e "$(eval "echo \$PATH_$module")/CMakeLists.txt"; then
+    LOCAL_USE_CMAKE=yes
+  else
+    LOCAL_USE_CMAKE=no
+  fi
+}
+
+
 #
 # default implementations for commands...
 # these can be overwritten in the $CONTROL files