diff --git a/buildconf b/buildconf
index fafd5dcc22e8..d07947d7a9e1 100755
--- a/buildconf
+++ b/buildconf
@@ -1,6 +1,14 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 # $Id$
 
+acv=`autoconf --version | grep GNU |cut -d ' ' -f 4`     
+res=`expr $acv '>=' 2.5`
+
+if test $res = 1; then
+    echo "cleaning checkout to force rebuild, due to bad autoconf"
+    ./cvsclean
+fi
+
 while test $# -gt 0; do
     if test "$1" = "--copy"; then
         automake_flags=--copy