diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 6b5f601439..3b22bf47fd 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -15,7 +15,13 @@ AC_CANONICAL_TARGET
 
 dnl generate .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .zip
 dnl AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(dist-bzip2 dist-zip)
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(dist-zip subdir-objects)
+
+dnl subdir-objects is supposed to become the default soon, but specifying it
+dnl breaks depfile generation.  We'll worry about it when that happens.
+dnl AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(dist-zip subdir-objects)
+
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(dist-zip)
+
 m4_ifdef([AM_SILENT_RULES], [AM_SILENT_RULES([yes])])
 
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(lib/shmem.cpp)