diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index 3ee36d0cf..1e6534732 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -64,12 +64,17 @@ This step is only needed if configure.ac has been changed, or if configure
 does not exist (for example, when building from a git clone).  The
 configure script and config.h.in can be built by running:
 
+    ...copy config.guess, config.sub, and install-sh from elsewhere
     autoheader
     autoconf
 
 If you have a full GNU autotools install, you can alternatively run:
 
-    autoreconf
+    autoreconf -i
+
+(With autoconf 2.70 or later, autoreconf -i/--install will create the
+config.guess, etc files; with earlier versions you will need to copy them
+from Gnulib, Autoconf, or elsewhere yourself.)
 
 Basic Installation
 ==================
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1b01d7271..d035af864 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ committed to this repository, so building the code from a Git repository
 requires extra steps:
 
 ```sh
+cp ..etc.. .   # Copy config.guess, config.sub, and install-sh from elsewhere
 autoheader     # If using configure, generate the header template...
 autoconf       # ...and configure script (or use autoreconf to do both)
 ./configure    # Optional but recommended, for choosing extra functionality
diff --git a/config.mk.in b/config.mk.in
index f8decf0a2..6c9bdd271 100644
--- a/config.mk.in
+++ b/config.mk.in
@@ -37,8 +37,9 @@ libexecdir   = @libexecdir@
 datarootdir  = @datarootdir@
 mandir       = @mandir@
 
-CC     = @CC@
-RANLIB = @RANLIB@
+CC       = @CC@
+INSTALL  = @INSTALL@
+RANLIB   = @RANLIB@
 
 CPPFLAGS = @CPPFLAGS@
 CFLAGS   = @CFLAGS@
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index f473c97e5..0c8c990aa 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -60,7 +60,9 @@ endif
 EOF
    AC_MSG_ERROR([$1], [$2])])
 
+AC_CANONICAL_HOST
 AC_PROG_CC
+AC_PROG_INSTALL
 AC_PROG_RANLIB
 
 dnl Turn on compiler warnings, if possible
@@ -137,9 +139,8 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE([s3],
                   [support Amazon AWS S3 URLs])],
   [], [enable_s3=check])
 
-basic_host=${host_alias:-unknown-`uname -s`}
-AC_MSG_CHECKING([shared library type for $basic_host])
-case $basic_host in
+AC_MSG_CHECKING([shared library type${host_alias:+ for $host_alias}])
+case $host in
   *-cygwin* | *-CYGWIN*)
     host_result="Cygwin DLL"
     PLATFORM=CYGWIN