diff --git a/am/ChangeLog b/am/ChangeLog
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..16ea39030
--- /dev/null
+++ b/am/ChangeLog
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+2002-02-26  Thien-Thi Nguyen  <ttn@giblet.glug.org>
+
+	* pre-inst-guile, Makefile.am, README: New files.
+
diff --git a/am/Makefile.am b/am/Makefile.am
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..a4bfbc415
--- /dev/null
+++ b/am/Makefile.am
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+## Process this file with Automake to create Makefile.in
+##
+##  	Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+##
+##   This file is part of GUILE.
+##
+##   GUILE is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+##   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
+##   published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or
+##   (at your option) any later version.
+##
+##   GUILE is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+##   WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+##   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+##   GNU General Public License for more details.
+##
+##   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
+##   License along with GUILE; see the file COPYING.  If not, write
+##   to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite
+##   330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
+
+AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = gnu
+
+am_frags = pre-inst-guile
+
+EXTRA_DIST = $(am_frags)
+
+## Makefile.am ends here
diff --git a/am/README b/am/README
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c7883c37c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/am/README
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+data directory: automake frags
+
+do not name files using extension ".am", as automake is overzealous sometimes.
diff --git a/am/pre-inst-guile b/am/pre-inst-guile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2cf240104
--- /dev/null
+++ b/am/pre-inst-guile
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+## am/pre-inst-guile --- define preinstguile and preinstguiletool vars
+
+##	Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation
+##
+##   This file is part of GUILE.
+##
+##   GUILE is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+##   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
+##   published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or
+##   (at your option) any later version.
+##
+##   GUILE is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+##   WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+##   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+##   GNU General Public License for more details.
+##
+##   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
+##   License along with GUILE; see the file COPYING.  If not, write
+##   to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite
+##   330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
+
+## Commentary:
+
+## This fragment defines two variables: preinstguile, preinstguiletool.
+## It can be included in any Makefile.am by adding the line:
+##   include $(top_srcdir)/am/pre-inst-guile
+## See devel/build/pre-inst-guile.text (CVS only) for more info.
+
+## Code:
+
+preinstguile     = $(top_builddir_absolute)/pre-inst-guile
+preinstguiletool = GUILE="$(preinstguile)" $(top_srcdir)/scripts
+
+## am/pre-inst-guile ends here
diff --git a/pre-inst-guile.in b/pre-inst-guile.in
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..428e04b14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pre-inst-guile.in
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+#	Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation
+#
+#   This file is part of GUILE.
+#
+#   GUILE is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+#   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
+#   published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or
+#   (at your option) any later version.
+#
+#   GUILE is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+#   WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+#   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+#   GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+#   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
+#   License along with GUILE; see the file COPYING.  If not, write
+#   to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite
+#   330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
+
+# Commentary:
+
+# Usage: pre-inst-guile [ARGS]
+#
+# This script arranges for the environment to support, and eventaully execs,
+# the uninstalled binary guile executable located somewhere under libguile/,
+# passing ARGS to it.  In the process, env var GUILE is clobbered, and the
+# following env vars are modified (but not clobbered):
+#   GUILE_LOAD_PATH
+#   LTDL_LOAD_PATH
+#
+# This script can be used as a drop-in replacement for $bindir/guile;
+# if there is a discrepency in behavior, that's a bug.
+
+# Code:
+
+# config
+subdirs_with_ltlibs="srfi guile-readline"       # maintain me
+
+# env (set by configure)
+top_srcdir="@top_srcdir@"
+top_builddir="@top_builddir_absolute@"
+
+[ x"$top_srcdir"   = x -o ! -d "$top_srcdir" -o \
+  x"$top_builddir" = x -o ! -d "$top_builddir" ] && {
+    echo $0: bad environment
+    echo top_srcdir=$top_srcdir
+    echo top_builddir=$top_builddir
+    exit 1
+}
+
+# handle GUILE_LOAD_PATH (no clobber)
+if [ x"$GUILE_LOAD_PATH" = x ] ; then
+    GUILE_LOAD_PATH="${top_srcdir}"
+else
+    # This hair prevents double inclusion.
+    # The ":" prevents prefix aliasing.
+    case x"$GUILE_LOAD_PATH" in x*${top_srcdir}:*) ;;
+      *) GUILE_LOAD_PATH="${top_srcdir}:$GUILE_LOAD_PATH" ;;
+    esac
+fi
+export GUILE_LOAD_PATH
+
+# handle LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH (no clobber)
+ltdl_prefix=""
+for dir in $subdirs_with_ltlibs ; do
+    ltdl_prefix="${top_builddir}/${dir}:${ltdl_prefix}"
+done
+LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH="${ltdl_prefix}$LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH"
+export LTDL_LIBRARY_PATH
+
+# set GUILE (clobber)
+GUILE=${top_builddir}/libguile/guile
+export GUILE
+
+# do it
+exec $GUILE "$@"
+
+# never reached
+exit 1
+
+# pre-inst-guile ends here