diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 960696cd..80cc16c4 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ Makefile.in
 /aclocal.m4
 /autom4te.cache
 /compile
+/config.cache
 /config.guess
 /config.h
 /config.h.in
@@ -45,4 +46,5 @@ Makefile.in
 /po/stamp-po
 
 /shadow.spec
+/shadow-*.tar.*
 /libmisc/getdate.c
diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 7492f07f..8851f5d6 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -2,7 +2,5 @@
 
 EXTRA_DIST = NEWS README TODO shadow.spec.in
 
-AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = 1.5 dist-bzip2 foreign
-
 SUBDIRS = po man libmisc lib src \
 	contrib doc etc
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index b389838a..652a2133 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 dnl Process this file with autoconf to produce a configure script.
-AC_INIT
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(shadow, 4.4)
+AC_PREREQ([2.64])
+AC_INIT([shadow], [4.4], [pkg-shadow-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org], [],
+	[https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow])
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11 foreign dist-xz])
+AM_SILENT_RULES([yes])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
 
 dnl Some hacks...
diff --git a/man/generate_mans.mak b/man/generate_mans.mak
index 28694667..f0812969 100644
--- a/man/generate_mans.mak
+++ b/man/generate_mans.mak
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ man1/% man3/% man5/% man8/%: %.xml-config Makefile config.xml
 	            -nonet http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/manpages/profile-docbook.xsl $<
 
 clean-local:
-	for d in man1 man3 man5 man8; do [ -d $$d ] && rmdir $$d; done
+	rm -rf man1 man3 man5 man8
 
 else
 $(man_MANS):