diff --git a/ANNOUNCE b/ANNOUNCE
index 0131f942f..637587971 100644
--- a/ANNOUNCE
+++ b/ANNOUNCE
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ Version 1.6.0beta07 [January 25, 2012]
     gcc configure option by allowing -Werror to be turned on safely; without
     the option the tests written in configure itself fail compilation because
     they cause compiler warnings.
+  Rewrote autogen.sh to run autoreconf instead of running tools one-by-one.
 
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diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 673e58713..5512b02e3 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -3883,6 +3883,7 @@ Version 1.6.0beta07 [January 25, 2012]
     gcc configure option by allowing -Werror to be turned on safely; without
     the option the tests written in configure itself fail compilation because
     they cause compiler warnings.
+  Rewrote autogen.sh to run autoreconf instead of running tools one-by-one.
 
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diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 5be104eb1..c17dd3fd9 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -1,34 +1,54 @@
 #! /bin/sh
-# a quick hack script to generate necessary files from 
-# auto* tools.
 #
-# WARNING: if you run this you will change the versions
-# of the tools which are used and, maybe, required!
+# Run 'autoreconf' to build 'configure', 'Makefile.in' and other configure
+# control files.
+args=
+force=
+init=
+while test $# -gt 0
+do
+   case "$1" in
+      -f|--force)
+         force=1
+         args="$args $1";;
 
-# You can define your own replacements in your environment.
-# $AUTOCONF,  $AUTOMAKE, $AUTOHEADER, $AUTOPOINT, $ACLOCAL and $LIBTOOLIZE
+      -V|--version)
+         sed -n -e \
+            '/PNG_HEADER_VERSION_STRING/,+1s/^[^"]*" \([^"]*\).."[^"]*$/\1/p' \
+            png.h
+         exit 0;;
 
-touch Makefile.am configure.ac
-{
-   LT=${LIBTOOLIZE-libtoolize}
-   echo "running $LT" >&2
-   $LT --force --copy --automake
-} && {
-   AL=${ACLOCAL-aclocal}
-   echo "running $AL" >&2
-   $AL
-} && {
-   AH=${AUTOHEADER-autoheader}
-   echo "running $AH [ignore the warnings]" >&2
-   $AH
-} && {
-   AM=${AUTOMAKE-automake}
-   echo "running $AM" >&2
-   $AM --force-missing --foreign -a -c
-} && {
-   AC=${AUTOCONF-autoconf}
-   echo "running $AC" >&2
-   $AC
-} &&
-   echo "autogen complete" >&2 ||
-   echo "ERROR: autogen.sh failed, autogen is incomplete" >&2
+      --init)
+         init=1;;
+
+      -h|--help)
+         echo "$0: run autoreconf to update configure files" >&2
+         echo " options:" >&2
+         echo "  --version: print the version of this libpng" >&2
+         echo "  --force: ignore date stamps and make all files" >&2
+         echo "  --init: do a complete re-initialization" >&2
+         echo "  others: passed to autoreconf, use autoreconf --help" >&2
+         exit 1;;
+
+      *)
+         args="$args $1";;
+   esac
+
+   shift
+done
+
+if test -r configure -a -z "$init"
+then
+   # Configure exists, either an update or a tarball distribution
+   if test ! -d .git -a -z "$force"
+   then
+      echo "autogen: running with --force to update a non-GIT distribution" >&2
+      args="--force $args"
+   fi
+   autoreconf --warnings=all $args
+else
+   # No configure: assume this is a clean tree and everything needs to be
+   # generated
+   # autoupdate
+   autoreconf --warnings=all --force --install $args
+fi