diff --git a/Make.mk b/Make.mk
index e3fe272d..17bec0dd 100644
--- a/Make.mk
+++ b/Make.mk
@@ -338,7 +338,7 @@ $(srcdir)/configure: configure.ac aclocal.m4
 $(srcdir)/config.h.in: stamp-h.in
 $(srcdir)/stamp-h.in: configure.ac aclocal.m4
 	cd $(srcdir) && autoheader
-	>$@
+	touch $@
 
 $(srcdir)/aclocal.m4: $(filter m4/%.m4, $(src))
 	cd $(srcdir) && aclocal -I m4
diff --git a/bootstrap b/bootstrap
index fc032375..1a1a3aee 100755
--- a/bootstrap
+++ b/bootstrap
@@ -4,4 +4,4 @@
 aclocal -I m4
 autoconf
 autoheader
->stamp-h.in
+touch stamp-h.in
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 1f0d59a4..8949e02f 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -147,6 +147,6 @@ AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([stamp-h],
 		| sed -n '/\//s,/@<:@^/@:>@*$,,gp'| uniq`
 	fi
 	mkdir -p info.html info.nr lib
-	>stamp-h],
+	touch stamp-h],
 	[cvs_controlled=$cvs_controlled; AWK=$AWK])
 AC_OUTPUT