diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4bb3cf1367..ec58d5c93b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2272,12 +2272,14 @@ $(patsubst %.py,%,$(SCRIPT_PYTHON)): % : unimplemented.sh
 	mv $@+ $@
 endif # NO_PYTHON
 
+CONFIGURE_RECIPE = $(RM) configure configure.ac+ && \
+		   sed -e 's/@@GIT_VERSION@@/$(GIT_VERSION)/g' \
+			configure.ac >configure.ac+ && \
+		   autoconf -o configure configure.ac+ && \
+		   $(RM) configure.ac+
+
 configure: configure.ac GIT-VERSION-FILE
-	$(QUIET_GEN)$(RM) $@ $<+ && \
-	sed -e 's/@@GIT_VERSION@@/$(GIT_VERSION)/g' \
-	    $< > $<+ && \
-	autoconf -o $@ $<+ && \
-	$(RM) $<+
+	$(QUIET_GEN)$(CONFIGURE_RECIPE)
 
 ifdef AUTOCONFIGURED
 # We avoid depending on 'configure' here, because it gets rebuilt
@@ -2286,7 +2288,7 @@ ifdef AUTOCONFIGURED
 # do want to recheck when the platform/environment detection logic
 # changes, hence this depends on configure.ac.
 config.status: configure.ac
-	$(QUIET_GEN)$(MAKE) configure && \
+	$(QUIET_GEN)$(CONFIGURE_RECIPE) && \
 	if test -f config.status; then \
 	  ./config.status --recheck; \
 	else \