diff --git a/babl.spec b/babl.spec
index 0a5c152..b88de89 100644
--- a/babl.spec
+++ b/babl.spec
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ This package contains documentation needed for developing with %{name}.
 %setup -q
 %patch0 -p1 -b .concurrency-stresstest
 %patch10 -p1 -b .autofoo
+# prevent automake magic from attempting to rebuild things unnecessarily
+touch config.h.in
 
 %build
 # use PIC/PIE because babl is likely to deal with data coming from untrusted