diff --git a/guile-readline/Makefile.am b/guile-readline/Makefile.am
index f1fefd605..054cffbb7 100644
--- a/guile-readline/Makefile.am
+++ b/guile-readline/Makefile.am
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 ##   to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite
 ##   330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
 
-AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = gnu
+AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign
 
 ## Prevent automake from adding extra -I options
 DEFS = @DEFS@ @EXTRA_DEFS@