diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c3facbf5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# to really generate all files you need to run "make distcheck" in a
+# object tree, but this will do if you have all parts of the required
+# tool-chain installed
+autoreconf -f -i || { echo "autoreconf failed: $?"; exit 1; }