diff --git a/cvs.sh b/cvs.sh
index 8ef5ea3..52b1824 100644
--- a/cvs.sh
+++ b/cvs.sh
@@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ if egrep "^A[MC]_CONFIG_HEADER" configure.in >/dev/null 2>&1; then
   $AUTOHEADER || exit 1
   touch config.h.in
 fi
-$AUTOMAKE --foreign || exit 1
+$AUTOMAKE --add-missing --foreign || exit 1
 if test "$UNSERMAKE" = no; then
   echo "*** Postprocessing Makefile templates"
   perl -w admin/am_edit || exit 1