diff --git a/src/template/netbsd b/src/template/netbsd
index 1cb953c7fb5..120ed59bf47 100644
--- a/src/template/netbsd
+++ b/src/template/netbsd
@@ -1 +1,5 @@
 # tools/thread/thread_test must be run
+case $build in
+	*-netbsdelf[2-9]*) THREAD_CPPFLAGS="-pthread"; THREAD_LIBS="-pthread" ;;
+esac
+