diff --git a/libf2c/configure.in b/libf2c/configure.in
index aedd7427f01..dbe069a11e5 100644
--- a/libf2c/configure.in
+++ b/libf2c/configure.in
@@ -178,7 +178,8 @@ AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM
 AC_SUBST(target_alias)
 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(libU77 libI77 libF77)
 # Do Makefile first since g2c.h depends on it and shouldn't get an
-# earlier timestamp.
+# earlier timestamp.  Of course, it does when the multilib gunk below
+# edits Makefile, sigh; see additional touch below.
 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile g2c.h:g2c.hin,
  [test -z "$CONFIG_HEADERS" || echo timestamp > stamp-h
 if test -n "$CONFIG_FILES"; then
@@ -186,6 +187,7 @@ if test -n "$CONFIG_FILES"; then
     # FIXME: We shouldn't need to set ac_file
     ac_file=Makefile
     . ${topsrcdir}/config-ml.in
+    touch g2c.h   # to keep it more recent than Makefile
   fi
 fi],
 srcdir=${srcdir}