diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f8b3cd6fd5..d1e5e06242 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+/GNUmakefile
+/build/
 /.doctrees
 /config-devices.*
 /config-all-devices.*
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 35d6492343..f86e03981e 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -11,6 +11,55 @@ unset CLICOLOR_FORCE GREP_OPTIONS
 # Don't allow CCACHE, if present, to use cached results of compile tests!
 export CCACHE_RECACHE=yes
 
+# make source path absolute
+source_path=$(cd "$(dirname -- "$0")"; pwd)
+
+if test "$PWD" = "$source_path"
+then
+    echo "Using './build' as the directory for build output"
+
+    MARKER=build/auto-created-by-configure
+
+    if test -e build
+    then
+        if test -f $MARKER
+        then
+           rm -rf build
+        else
+            echo "ERROR: ./build dir already exists and was not previously created by configure"
+            exit 1
+        fi
+    fi
+
+    mkdir build
+    touch $MARKER
+
+    cat > GNUmakefile <<'EOF'
+# This file is auto-generated by configure to support in-source tree
+# 'make' command invocation
+
+ifeq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),)
+recurse: all
+endif
+
+.NOTPARALLEL: %
+%: force
+	@echo 'changing dir to build for $(MAKE) "$(MAKECMDGOALS)"...'
+	@$(MAKE) -C build -f Makefile $(MAKECMDGOALS)
+	@if test "$(MAKECMDGOALS)" = "distclean" && \
+	    test -e build/auto-created-by-configure ; \
+	then \
+	    rm -rf build GNUmakefile ; \
+	fi
+force: ;
+.PHONY: force
+GNUmakefile: ;
+
+EOF
+    cd build
+    exec $source_path/configure "$@"
+fi
+
 # Temporary directory used for files created while
 # configure runs. Since it is in the build directory
 # we can safely blow away any previous version of it
@@ -279,9 +328,6 @@ ld_has() {
     $ld --help 2>/dev/null | grep ".$1" >/dev/null 2>&1
 }
 
-# make source path absolute
-source_path=$(cd "$(dirname -- "$0")"; pwd)
-
 if printf %s\\n "$source_path" "$PWD" | grep -q "[[:space:]:]";
 then
   error_exit "main directory cannot contain spaces nor colons"