diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 35d7834c62..d46d4229ee 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
-Tue Nov 25 16:34:09 +0100 2008 Jim Meyering <meyering@redhat.com>
+Tue Nov 25 16:34:10 +0100 2008 Jim Meyering <meyering@redhat.com>
+
+	* configure.in: avoid the following diagnostic when running ../configure
+	cp: cannot stat `COPYING.LIB': No such file or directory
 
 	don't silently skip a test
 	* tests/Makefile.am (EXTRA_DIST): Distribute domainschemadata/.
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index a603c10b57..4db7204fc5 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -1222,10 +1222,12 @@ then
 fi
 AM_CONDITIONAL([WITH_NODE_DEVICES], [test "$with_nodedev" = "yes"])
 
-
-# very annoying
-rm -f COPYING
-cp COPYING.LIB COPYING
+# Only COPYING.LIB is under version control, yet COPYING
+# is included as part of the distribution tarball.
+# Copy one to the other, but only if this is a srcdir-build.
+# You are unlikely to be doing distribution-related things in a non-srcdir build
+test "x$srcdir" = x. && ! test -f COPYING &&
+cp -f COPYING.LIB COPYING
 
 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile src/Makefile include/Makefile docs/Makefile \
           docs/examples/Makefile docs/devhelp/Makefile \