On Sunday 02 October 2011, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> The automake manual says:
> 
> AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
>   For each AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE([file]), automake will ensure that file
>   exists in the aux directory, and will complain otherwise. It will also
>   automatically distribute the file.
> 
> But the last sentence is incorrect (see attached test case).
>
Apparently, the bug seems to be present only when the directory of the
auxiliary files itself contains a Makefile.am (in particular, when it
is `.').  I've committed the attached patch (to maint) to expose the bug.
I'm working on a fix (that also tackles bug#9546), but that is still
causing few unresolved issues with threaded automake, and will introduce
some (very minor) backward-incomatibilities, so I plan to finally commit
the fix to master only.

Regards,
  Stefano