diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 560f8259a5c1d851aca8b4f1fc1420e98af0303e..bcb42c55337bca00b318b91c96c5bcecdc9618e4 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 
 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign
 
+ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
+
 EXTRA_DIST = CHANGES COPYING maketgz reconf Makefile.dist curl-config.in \
  curl-style.el sample.emacs RELEASE-NOTES buildconf buildconf.bat libcurl.pc.in
 
diff --git a/acinclude.m4 b/acinclude.m4
index 250833f72c79e594cb7e8095d9e063d03d8ce55c..2bf8f10412d7e2eea115065b1816a9fda1c40416 100644
--- a/acinclude.m4
+++ b/acinclude.m4
@@ -3529,13 +3529,3 @@ AC_HELP_STRING([--without-ca-path], [Don't use a default CA path]),
     AC_MSG_RESULT([no])
   fi
 ])
-
-
-dnl Tests done using 'aclocal -I m4' in buildconf and 'ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4'
-dnl in top Makefile.am triggered a problem that prevented aclocal from running
-dnl successfully on SunOS 5.10 with GNU m4 1.4.5 and GNU Autoconf 2.61
-dnl We actually don't need all the bells and whistles that the above mechanism
-dnl provides. We only need to include our m4/reentrant.m4 file here.
-
-m4_include([m4/reentrant.m4])
-
diff --git a/ares/Makefile.am b/ares/Makefile.am
index a9433abdb3d22b7f75cc5abcc8fe9837b1f01a1f..04db9ecc9eb86ccb139a8b4ec6d644a14340ac8f 100644
--- a/ares/Makefile.am
+++ b/ares/Makefile.am
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign
 
+ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
+
 lib_LTLIBRARIES = libcares.la
 
 man_MANS = $(MANPAGES)
diff --git a/ares/acinclude.m4 b/ares/acinclude.m4
index 13d1b08c4aff1fb30f06b70dd053396be568b88b..bdea38447a755d584f006428c4486e0d1ed0e25b 100644
--- a/ares/acinclude.m4
+++ b/ares/acinclude.m4
@@ -2119,12 +2119,3 @@ AC_DEFUN([CARES_CHECK_GETSERVBYPORT_R], [
     #
   fi
 ])
-
-dnl Tests done using 'aclocal -I m4' in buildconf and 'ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4'
-dnl in top Makefile.am triggered a problem that prevented aclocal from running
-dnl successfully on SunOS 5.10 with GNU m4 1.4.5 and GNU Autoconf 2.61
-dnl We actually don't need all the bells and whistles that the above mechanism
-dnl provides. We only need to include our m4/reentrant.m4 file here.
-
-m4_include([m4/reentrant.m4])
-
diff --git a/ares/buildconf b/ares/buildconf
index 364d5a06ef3eb6328b6bdb9b368529913ad1cbad..44706ce4f044d50f142e68a2e6f7d6062481b26f 100755
--- a/ares/buildconf
+++ b/ares/buildconf
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
 ${LIBTOOLIZE:-libtoolize} --copy --automake --force
-${ACLOCAL:-aclocal} $ACLOCAL_FLAGS
+${ACLOCAL:-aclocal} -I m4 $ACLOCAL_FLAGS
 ${AUTOHEADER:-autoheader}
 ${AUTOCONF:-autoconf}
 ${AUTOMAKE:-automake} --add-missing
diff --git a/buildconf b/buildconf
index b22fb6f2300e492e4b4fcfec73a3d63279a26844..771030d87531375f3a7744f857f65b0b8892d6af 100755
--- a/buildconf
+++ b/buildconf
@@ -305,46 +305,12 @@ fi
 tmp_host_type=`uname -a | sed '/SunOS/s/.*\(SunOS\).*/\1/'`
 if test "x$tmp_host_type" = "xSunOS"; then
   ACLOCAL_FLAGS="$ACLOCAL_FLAGS --verbose"
-
-  echo "buildconf: PATH: $PATH"
-
-  # show all available sed's in PATH order
-  old_IFS=$IFS; IFS=':'
-  for path in $PATH
-  do
-    IFS=$old_IFS
-    if test -f "$path/sed"; then
-      echo "buildconf: sed: $path/sed"
-    fi
-    if test -f "$path/gsed"; then
-      echo "buildconf: sed: $path/gsed"
-      if test -z "$SED"; then
-        SED="$path/gsed"
-        export SED
-      fi
-    fi
-  done
-  IFS=$old_IFS
-  echo "buildconf: SED: $SED"
-
-  echo "buildconf: Feeding acinclude.m4 with reentrant.m4"
-
-  sed 's/m4_include.*m4.*reentrant.m4.*//' acinclude.m4 > acinclude.2
-  mv acinclude.2 acinclude.m4
-  cat m4/reentrant.m4 >> acinclude.m4
-  rm -f m4/reentrant.m4
-
-  sed 's/m4_include.*m4.*reentrant.m4.*//' ares/acinclude.m4 > ares/acinclude.2
-  mv ares/acinclude.2 ares/acinclude.m4
-  cat ares/m4/reentrant.m4 >> ares/acinclude.m4
-  rm -f ares/m4/reentrant.m4
-
 fi
 
 echo "buildconf: running libtoolize"
 $libtoolize --copy --automake --force || die "The libtoolize command failed"
 echo "buildconf: running aclocal"
-${ACLOCAL:-aclocal} $ACLOCAL_FLAGS || die "The aclocal command line failed"
+${ACLOCAL:-aclocal} -I m4 $ACLOCAL_FLAGS || die "The aclocal command line failed"
 if test -n "$PERL"; then
   echo "buildconf: running aclocal hack to convert all mv to mv -f"
   $PERL -i.bak -pe 's/\bmv +([^-\s])/mv -f $1/g' aclocal.m4