This does seem to be covered in the pod (Inline::C), "If you use C function names that happen to be used internally by Perl, you will get a load error at run time. There is currently no functionality to prevent this or to warn you. For now, a list of Perl's internal symbols is packaged in the Inline module distribution under the filename 'symbols.perl'. Avoid using these in your code."

Based on that, I'd say there's no work around other than what you did.