I don''t know why this is needed. Most likely it's only a workaround for DJGPP specific bug in DJGPP port of GNU make. make must normally found g2c.hin also without that according VPATH, but seems that it doesn't happen (AP. 2004/01/03) --- Makefile.in~1 2004-01-03 10:25:50.000000000 +0000 +++ Makefile.in 2004-01-03 10:24:56.000000000 +0000 @@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ cd $(srcdir) && autoconf # Dependence on Makefile serializes for parallel make. -g2c.h: g2c.hin config.status Makefile +g2c.h: $(top_srcdir)/g2c.hin config.status Makefile # Might try to avoid rebuilding everything if Makefile or configure # changes and g2c.h doesn't; see also the Makefile rule. Should # depend on another stamp file rather than using the commented-out