diff --git a/ares/buildconf b/ares/buildconf
index 434a308fd..7e5e077b2 100755
--- a/ares/buildconf
+++ b/ares/buildconf
@@ -1,7 +1,12 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
+if test -z "$ACLOCAL_FLAGS"; then
+  ACLOCAL_FLAGS="-I m4"
+else
+  ACLOCAL_FLAGS="$ACLOCAL_FLAGS -I m4"
+fi
+
 ${LIBTOOLIZE:-libtoolize} --copy --automake --force
-ACLOCAL_FLAGS="-I m4 $ACLOCAL_FLAGS"
 ${ACLOCAL:-aclocal} $ACLOCAL_FLAGS
 ${AUTOHEADER:-autoheader}
 ${AUTOCONF:-autoconf}
diff --git a/buildconf b/buildconf
index eecc28f66..578d76ecd 100755
--- a/buildconf
+++ b/buildconf
@@ -206,15 +206,20 @@ PERL=`findtool ${PERL:-perl}`
 
 # run the correct scripts now
 
+if test -z "$ACLOCAL_FLAGS"; then
+  ACLOCAL_FLAGS="-I m4"
+else
+  ACLOCAL_FLAGS="$ACLOCAL_FLAGS -I m4"
+fi
+
 tmp_host_type=`uname -a | sed '/SunOS/s/.*\(SunOS\).*/\1/'`
 if test "x$tmp_host_type" = "xSunOS"; then
-ACLOCAL_FLAGS="--verbose $ACLOCAL_FLAGS"
+  ACLOCAL_FLAGS="$ACLOCAL_FLAGS --verbose"
 fi
 
 echo "buildconf: running libtoolize"
 $libtoolize --copy --automake --force || die "The libtoolize command failed"
 echo "buildconf: running aclocal"
-ACLOCAL_FLAGS="-I m4 $ACLOCAL_FLAGS"
 ${ACLOCAL:-aclocal} $ACLOCAL_FLAGS || die "The aclocal command line failed"
 if test -n "$PERL"; then
   echo "buildconf: running aclocal hack to convert all mv to mv -f"