diff --git a/acinclude.m4 b/acinclude.m4
index bc50f5d9fd..c46d472b33 100644
--- a/acinclude.m4
+++ b/acinclude.m4
@@ -264,6 +264,7 @@ AM_PROG_LEX
 dnl if we are flex, be lex-compatible
 OPENAFS_LEX_IS_FLEX([AC_SUBST([LEX], ["$LEX -l"])])
 
+OPENAFS_FORCE_ABS_INSTALL
 OPENAFS_CHECK_BIGENDIAN
 OPENAFS_PRINTF_TAKES_Z_LEN
 
diff --git a/src/cf/abs-install.m4 b/src/cf/abs-install.m4
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a899929d3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cf/abs-install.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+dnl Force $INSTALL to be an absolute path; some of the libafs build
+dnl gets confused by a relative $INSTALL
+AC_DEFUN([OPENAFS_FORCE_ABS_INSTALL],[
+    if test "$INSTALL" = "${srcdir}/build-tools/install-sh -c" ||
+       test "$INSTALL" = "build-tools/install-sh -c" ; then
+
+	INSTALL=`cd "$srcdir"; pwd`/build-tools/install-sh
+	if test -f "$INSTALL" ; then :; else
+	    AC_MSG_ERROR([Error translating install-sh to an absolute path: $INSTALL does not exist?])
+	fi
+	INSTALL="$INSTALL -c"
+    fi
+])