diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..19e5b55fcfa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+#! /bin/sh
+
+srcdir=`dirname "$0"`
+test -z "$srcdir" && srcdir=.
+
+SRCDIR=`(cd "$srcdir" && pwd)`
+ORIGDIR=`pwd`
+
+if test "x$SRCDIR" != "x$ORIGDIR"; then
+	echo "Mesa cannot be built when srcdir != builddir" 1>&2
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+autoreconf -v --install || exit 1
+
+"$srcdir"/configure "$@"
diff --git a/docs/autoconf.html b/docs/autoconf.html
index 518f5d2d416..d0f91558b7d 100644
--- a/docs/autoconf.html
+++ b/docs/autoconf.html
@@ -43,9 +43,12 @@ configure script, type:
 <p>
 To see a short description of all the options, type <code>./configure
 --help</code>. If you are using a development snapshot and the configure
-script does not exist, type <code>make configure</code> to generate it
-first. Once you have run <code>./configure</code> and set the options to
-your preference, type:
+script does not exist, type <code>./autogen.sh</code> to generate it
+first. If you know the options you want to pass to
+<code>configure</code>, you can pass them to <code>autogen.sh</code>. It
+will run <code>configure</code> with these options after it is
+generated. Once you have run <code>configure</code> and set the options
+to your preference, type:
 </p>
 
 <pre>