diff --git a/README.maintainer b/README.maintainer
index 1ff7d501..019a41d4 100644
--- a/README.maintainer
+++ b/README.maintainer
@@ -26,9 +26,7 @@ Release Reminders
  * To construct a source distribution from a pristine checkout,
    make_dist does the following:
 
-    aclocal -I m4
-    autoheader
-    autoconf
+    ./autogen.sh
     ./configure --enable-doc-maintenance
     make build_manual
     make distclean
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..f6a3afbd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+aclocal -I m4
+autoheader
+autoconf
diff --git a/make_dist b/make_dist
index d5f11a2e..71e3be55 100755
--- a/make_dist
+++ b/make_dist
@@ -109,9 +109,7 @@ if ($version_error)
     die "$whoami: version numbers are not consistent\n";
 }
 
-run("aclocal -I m4");
-run("autoheader");
-run("autoconf");
+run("./autogen.sh");
 run("./configure --enable-doc-maintenance");
 run("make build_manual");
 run("make distclean");