diff --git a/modules/database/src/tools/dbdExpand.pl b/modules/database/src/tools/dbdExpand.pl
index 5cd26728b..acd292a45 100644
--- a/modules/database/src/tools/dbdExpand.pl
+++ b/modules/database/src/tools/dbdExpand.pl
@@ -20,10 +20,14 @@ use EPICS::Getopts;
 use EPICS::Readfile;
 use EPICS::macLib;
 
-our ($opt_D, @opt_I, @opt_S, $opt_o);
+our ($opt_D, $opt_A, @opt_I, @opt_S, $opt_o);
 
-getopts('DI@S@o:') or
-    die "Usage: dbdExpand [-D] [-I dir] [-S macro=val] [-o out.dbd] in.dbd ...";
+getopts('DAI@S@o:') or
+    die "Usage: dbdExpand [-D] [-A] [-I dir] [-S macro=val] [-o out.dbd] in.dbd ...";
+
+if ($opt_A) {
+    $DBD::Parser::allowAutoDeclarations = 1;
+}
 
 my @path = map { split /[:;]/ } @opt_I; # FIXME: Broken on Win32?
 my $macros = EPICS::macLib->new(@opt_S);