diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index e4232fe7..b7bf2f90 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -8,11 +8,15 @@ AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = 				\
 
 EXTRA_DIST = 					\
 	autogen.sh				\
+	configure.ac.in				\
 	extras/nano/README			\
 	extras/nano/conky.nanorc		\
 	extras/vim/README			\
 	extras/vim/ftdetect/conkyrc.vim		\
 	extras/vim/syntax/conkyrc.vim
 
+DISTCLEANFILES =				\
+	configure.ac
+
 distclean-local:
 	/bin/rm -rf *.cache *~
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 3067c037..6bb4f292 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -1,14 +1,23 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # $Id$
 
+# autogen.sh
+# optional $1 = full path to svn local working repository
+
 AUTOCONF=${AUTOCONF:-autoconf}
 AUTOMAKE=${AUTOMAKE:-automake}
 ACLOCAL=${ACLOCAL:-aclocal}
 AUTOHEADER=${AUTOHEADER:-autoheader}
 LIBTOOLIZE=${LIBTOOLIZE:-libtoolize}
+WORKINGREPO=${1:-.}
 
-$ACLOCAL
-$LIBTOOLIZE --force
-$AUTOHEADER
-$AUTOMAKE -a
-$AUTOCONF
+# substitute svn revision
+revision=`LC_ALL=C svn info ${WORKINGREPO} | awk '/^Revision: / {printf "%05d\n", $2}'`
+sed -e "s/@REVISION@/${revision}/g" \
+    < "configure.ac.in" > "configure.ac"
+
+echo Running $ACLOCAL ... && $ACLOCAL
+echo Running $LIBTOOLIZE --force ... && $LIBTOOLIZE --force
+echo Running $AUTOHEADER ... && $AUTOHEADER
+echo Running $AUTOMAKE -a ... && $AUTOMAKE -a
+echo Running $AUTOCONF ... && $AUTOCONF
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac.in
similarity index 97%
rename from configure.ac
rename to configure.ac.in
index 989b346d..4e45262b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac.in
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+dnl $Id$ 
+
 dnl major, minor and micro version macros.
 m4_define([conky_version_major], [1])
 m4_define([conky_version_minor], [4])
@@ -6,10 +8,7 @@ m4_define([conky_version_micro], [5])
 dnl conky_version_tag() macro. change [svn] to [] for releases.
 m4_define([conky_version_tag], [svn])
 
-dnl conky_version_revision() macro creates svn revision string, e.g. r784.
-m4_define([conky_version_revision],[r`svn info | grep "^Revision:" | sed -e "s/^Revision: \(.*\)/\1/"`])
-
-dnl conky_version() macro creates e.g. 1.4.5 for releases or 1.4.5-svn-r784 for svn versions.
+m4_define([conky_version_revision],[r@REVISION@])
 m4_define([conky_version], 
 	  [conky_version_major().conky_version_minor().conky_version_micro()ifelse(
 	   	conky_version_tag(), [svn],