-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.7 check-news readme-alpha dist-bzip2])
-AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h:config.hin])
+AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([build-aux])
+AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
+
+# Automake 1.10.3 and 1.11.1 fix a security flaw discussed here:
+#
+# http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.autotools.announce/131
+#
+# To avoid 1.11, we make 1.11.1 the minimum version.
+#
+# We want gnits strictness only when rolling a stable release. For
+# release candidates, we use version strings like 2.4.3_rc1, but gnits
+# doesn't like that, so we let the underscore disable gnits. Between
+# releases, we want to be able run make dist without being required to
+# add a bogus NEWS entry. In that case, the version string
+# automatically contains a dash, which we also let disable gnits.
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11.1 dist-xz]
+ m4_bmatch(m4_defn([AC_PACKAGE_VERSION]), [[-_]],
+ [gnu], [gnits]))
+AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([lib/config.h:lib/config.hin])