diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..f24284f8eab1b57dab64119554aa1cfcb2b3b117
--- /dev/null
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+Note that these instructions are *not* necessary for distribution
+tarballs; they have separate configure/build instructions.  
+
+Building this package from CVS is mainly intended for developers.
+General users should obtain office distribution packages; both source
+and binary distributions are available at http://www.vorbis.com/.
+
+-----
+
+These are *brief* instructions on how to build this package from CVS.
+Yes, there are details left out.
+
+There are generally four steps necessary when building from CVS (i.e.,
+a developer's copy):
+
+1. cvs checkout of the sources, or cvs update.  RTFM from your
+   favorite flavor of CVS documentation; information on the xiph.org
+   CVS repository can be found at http://www.xiph.org/cvs.html.
+
+2. [re-]generate files such as "configure" and "Makefile.in" with the
+   GNU autoconf/automake tools.  Run the "autogen.sh" script to
+   perform this step.  
+
+   *** IF YOU ARE NOT BUILDING WITH GNU MAKE *AND* GCC: you must set
+   the AUTOMAKE_FLAGS envirnoment variable to "--include-deps"
+   before running autogen.sh.  For example:
+
+   csh% setenv AUTOMAKE_FLAGS --include-deps
+   csh% ./autogen.sh
+     or
+   sh% AUTOMAKE_FLAGS=--include-deps ./autogen.sh
+
+3. Run configure.  There are several options available; see
+   "./configure --help" for more information.
+
+4. Run "make" to build the source.  
+
+In general, steps 2 and 3 need to be re-run every time any of the
+following files are modified (either manually or by a cvs update):
+
+	  configure.in
+	  acinclude.m4
+
+Running "make clean" after running steps 2 and 3 is generally also
+advisable before running step 4.  It isn't *always* necessary, but
+unless you understand the workings of autoconf/automake, it's safest
+to just do it.
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 44a3fee5509fffaaa5d4860221fef89fd3d77354..019a2645255dbe830aec8387470cece549a97b09 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -53,8 +53,8 @@ aclocal $ACLOCAL_FLAGS
 #autoheader
 echo "  libtoolize --automake"
 libtoolize --automake
-echo "  automake --add-missing"
-automake --add-missing 
+echo "  automake --add-missing $AUTOMAKE_FLAGS"
+automake --add-missing $AUTOMAKE_FLAGS 
 echo "  autoconf"
 autoconf