diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index d18339768e..357fae958f 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -70,8 +70,9 @@ if test -d .git; then
             echo "set env-var CLEAN_SUBMODULE to discard gnulib changes" 2>&1
             exit 1 ;;
     esac
+    # Keep this test in sync with cfg.mk:_update_required
     if test "$t" = "$(cat $curr_status 2>/dev/null)" \
-        && test -f "po/Makevars"; then
+        && test -f "po/Makevars" && test -f AUTHORS; then
         # good, it's up to date, all we need is autoreconf
         autoreconf -if
     else
diff --git a/cfg.mk b/cfg.mk
index cd33fcfa72..b49f9e63c2 100644
--- a/cfg.mk
+++ b/cfg.mk
@@ -685,6 +685,8 @@ ifeq (0,$(MAKELEVEL))
   #  b653eda3ac4864de205419d9f41eec267cb89eeb .gnulib (v0.0-2286-gb653eda)
   # $ cat .git-module-status
   # b653eda3ac4864de205419d9f41eec267cb89eeb
+  #
+  # Keep this logic in sync with autogen.sh.
   _submodule_hash = sed 's/^[ +-]//;s/ .*//'
   _update_required := $(shell						\
       cd '$(srcdir)';							\