diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 757d8bce7..697625e24 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -15,13 +15,14 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
-# bin/ must be run first, as it builds executables needed for tests.
 # autom4te uses autotest.m4f to generate 'testsuite', so build tests last.
 # Rules in man/ use scripts from both bin/ and tests/, so *it* goes last.
-SUBDIRS = bin . lib tests man
+SUBDIRS = . lib tests man
 
 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
 
+MOSTLYCLEANFILES =
+
 EXTRA_DIST = ChangeLog.0 ChangeLog.1 ChangeLog.2 ChangeLog.3 \
 	     BUGS COPYINGv3 COPYING.EXCEPTION \
 	     GNUmakefile maint.mk cfg.mk \
@@ -102,6 +103,7 @@ dist-hook: gen-ChangeLog
 distclean-local:
 	if test x"$(VPATH)" != x ; then rm -f GNUmakefile ; fi
 
+include $(srcdir)/bin/local.mk
 include $(srcdir)/doc/local.mk
 
 # Perl coverage statistics.
diff --git a/bin/Makefile.am b/bin/local.mk
similarity index 72%
rename from bin/Makefile.am
rename to bin/local.mk
index fd264ab0c..57983f82c 100644
--- a/bin/Makefile.am
+++ b/bin/local.mk
@@ -15,18 +15,30 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
-include ../lib/freeze.mk
-
-bin_SCRIPTS = autom4te \
-	      autoconf autoheader autoreconf ifnames autoscan autoupdate
-
-EXTRA_DIST = autoconf.as autoheader.in autoreconf.in autoupdate.in ifnames.in \
-	     autoscan.in autom4te.in
+include $(srcdir)/lib/freeze.mk
+
+bin_SCRIPTS = \
+  bin/autoconf \
+  bin/autoheader \
+  bin/autom4te \
+  bin/autoreconf \
+  bin/autoscan \
+  bin/autoupdate \
+  bin/ifnames
+
+EXTRA_DIST += \
+  bin/autoconf.as \
+  bin/autoheader.in \
+  bin/autom4te.in \
+  bin/autoreconf.in \
+  bin/autoscan.in \
+  bin/autoupdate.in \
+  bin/ifnames.in
 
 # Files that should be removed, but which Automake does not know.
-MOSTLYCLEANFILES = $(bin_SCRIPTS) autoconf.in *.tmp
+MOSTLYCLEANFILES += $(bin_SCRIPTS) bin/autoconf.in bin/*.tmp
 
-# Get the release year from ../ChangeLog.
+# Get the release year from ChangeLog.
 RELEASE_YEAR = \
   `sed 's/^\([0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\).*/\1/;q' $(top_srcdir)/ChangeLog`
 
@@ -53,14 +65,13 @@ edit = sed \
 	-e 's|@PACKAGE_NAME[@]|$(PACKAGE_NAME)|g' \
 	-e 's|@configure_input[@]|Generated from $@.in; do not edit by hand.|g'
 
-$(top_builddir)/bin/autom4te: autom4te
-
 # autoconf is written in M4sh.
 # FIXME: this target should depend on the frozen files below lib/m4sugar,
 # otherwise autom4te may pick up a frozen m4sh.m4f from an earlier
 # installation below the same $(prefix); work around this with --melt.
-autoconf.in: $(srcdir)/autoconf.as $(m4sh_m4f_dependencies)
-	$(MY_AUTOM4TE) --language M4sh --cache '' --melt $(srcdir)/autoconf.as -o $@
+bin/autoconf.in: $(srcdir)/bin/autoconf.as $(m4sh_m4f_dependencies)
+	$(MY_AUTOM4TE) --language M4sh --cache '' \
+	               --melt $(srcdir)/bin/autoconf.as -o $@
 
 ## All the scripts depend on Makefile so that they are rebuilt when the
 ## prefix etc. changes.  It took quite a while to have the rule correct,
@@ -68,6 +79,7 @@ autoconf.in: $(srcdir)/autoconf.as $(m4sh_m4f_dependencies)
 ## Use chmod -w to prevent people from editing the wrong file by accident.
 $(bin_SCRIPTS): Makefile
 	rm -f $@ $@.tmp
+	$(MKDIR_P) $(@D)
 	srcdir=''; \
 	  test -f ./$@.in || srcdir=$(srcdir)/; \
 	  $(edit) $${srcdir}$@.in >$@.tmp
@@ -75,13 +87,13 @@ $(bin_SCRIPTS): Makefile
 	chmod a-w $@.tmp
 	mv $@.tmp $@
 
-autoconf: autoconf.in
-autoheader: $(srcdir)/autoheader.in
-autom4te: $(srcdir)/autom4te.in
-autoreconf: $(srcdir)/autoreconf.in
-autoscan: $(srcdir)/autoscan.in
-autoupdate: $(srcdir)/autoupdate.in
-ifnames: $(srcdir)/ifnames.in
+bin/autoconf: bin/autoconf.in
+bin/autoheader: $(srcdir)/bin/autoheader.in
+bin/autom4te: $(srcdir)/bin/autom4te.in
+bin/autoreconf: $(srcdir)/bin/autoreconf.in
+bin/autoscan: $(srcdir)/bin/autoscan.in
+bin/autoupdate: $(srcdir)/bin/autoupdate.in
+bin/ifnames: $(srcdir)/bin/ifnames.in
 
 
 ## --------------- ##
@@ -95,9 +107,13 @@ LETTERS = ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
 DIGITS = 0123456789
 WORD_REGEXP = [$(LETTERS)$(letters)_][$(LETTERS)$(letters)$(DIGITS)_]*
 ETAGS_PERL = --lang=perl \
-  autoheader.in autoreconf.in autoupdate.in autoscan.in autom4te.in \
-  ifnames.in
+  bin/autoheader.in \
+  bin/autoreconf.in \
+  bin/autoupdate.in \
+  bin/autoscan.in \
+  bin/autom4te.in \
+  bin/ifnames.in
 ETAGS_SH = --lang=none --regex='/\($(WORD_REGEXP)\)=/\1/' \
-  autoconf.in
+  bin/autoconf.in
 
 ETAGS_ARGS = $(ETAGS_PERL) $(ETAGS_SH)
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 437206c35..1fc00ae46 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -211,7 +211,7 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
 		 lib/Makefile lib/Autom4te/Makefile lib/autoscan/Makefile
 		 lib/m4sugar/Makefile
 		 lib/autoconf/Makefile lib/autotest/Makefile
-		 bin/Makefile])
+		 ])
 
 AC_OUTPUT
 # Report the state of this version of Autoconf if this is a beta.