diff --git a/config_subdir.m4 b/config_subdir.m4
index 4102dfd32..1c7909853 100644
--- a/config_subdir.m4
+++ b/config_subdir.m4
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ AC_DEFUN([AX_CONFIG_SUBDIR_OPTION],
 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS([$1])
 
 m4_ifblank([$2], [rm -f $srcdir/$1/configure.gnu],
-[printf "#!/bin/sh
-"\$"SHELL "../$srcdir/$1/configure" $2 \""\$"@"\" > "$srcdir/$1/configure.gnu"
+[echo -e '#!/bin/sh\nexec "`dirname "'\$'0"`/configure" $2 "'\$'@"' > "$srcdir/$1/configure.gnu"
 ])
 ])