diff --git a/doc/ref/Makefile.am b/doc/ref/Makefile.am
index 20d3424b4..5aab26a26 100644
--- a/doc/ref/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/ref/Makefile.am
@@ -3,17 +3,17 @@
 ##  	Copyright (C) 1998 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
@@ -43,7 +43,8 @@ GUILE = $(top_builddir)/libguile/guile
 
 autoconf.texi: autoconf-macros.texi
 autoconf-macros.texi: $(top_srcdir)/guile-config/guile.m4
-	GUILE=$(GUILE) $(top_srcdir)/scripts/snarf-guile-m4-docs $< > $@
+	GUILE=$(GUILE) \
+	$(top_srcdir)/scripts/snarf-guile-m4-docs $< > $(srcdir)/$@
 
 # Optionally support building an HTML version of the reference manual.