diff --git a/mkauto.sh b/mkauto.sh
index cdee6221..5e394f8d 100755
--- a/mkauto.sh
+++ b/mkauto.sh
@@ -3,6 +3,10 @@
 # It's separate from mkfiles.pl because it won't work (and isn't needed)
 # on a non-Unix system.
 
+# It's nice to be able to run this from inside the unix subdir as
+# well as from outside.
+test -f unix.h && cd ..
+
 # Track down automake's copy of install-sh
 cp `aclocal --print-ac-dir | sed 's/aclocal$/automake/'`/install-sh unix/.
 (cd unix && autoreconf  && rm -rf aclocal.m4 autom4te.cache)