diff --git a/configure b/configure
index e15088ee54..d5488bda9e 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -7806,9 +7806,6 @@ if test x"$abs_top_srcdir" != x"$abs_top_builddir"; then
   echo "$ac_t""done" 1>&6
 fi
 
-# (see Makefile.global)
-echo >src/include/stamp-h
-
 trap '' 1 2 15
 cat > confcache <<\EOF
 # This file is a shell script that caches the results of configure
@@ -8291,6 +8288,9 @@ cat >> $CONFIG_STATUS <<EOF
 EOF
 cat >> $CONFIG_STATUS <<\EOF
 
+# Update timestamp for config.h (see Makefile.global)
+echo >src/include/stamp-h
+
 exit 0
 EOF
 chmod +x $CONFIG_STATUS
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index d721801cee..92ac6b5467 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -1128,13 +1128,14 @@ if test x"$abs_top_srcdir" != x"$abs_top_builddir"; then
   AC_MSG_RESULT(done)
 fi
 
-# (see Makefile.global)
-echo >src/include/stamp-h
-
 AC_OUTPUT(
 [
   GNUmakefile
   src/GNUmakefile
   src/Makefile.global
   src/backend/port/Makefile
+],
+[
+# Update timestamp for config.h (see Makefile.global)
+echo >src/include/stamp-h
 ])
diff --git a/src/Makefile.global.in b/src/Makefile.global.in
index ac4864126f..f1e425a013 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.global.in
+++ b/src/Makefile.global.in
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # -*-makefile-*-
-# $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/Makefile.global.in,v 1.115 2000/12/16 13:03:25 petere Exp $
+# $Header: /cvsroot/pgsql/src/Makefile.global.in,v 1.116 2000/12/29 20:39:06 tgl Exp $
 
 #------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # All PostgreSQL makefiles include this file and use the variables it sets,
@@ -305,15 +305,17 @@ $(top_builddir)/src/Makefile.global: $(top_srcdir)/src/Makefile.global.in $(top_
 # Remake config.h from config.h.in if the latter changed.
 # config.status will not change the timestamp on config.h if it
 # doesn't change, so as to avoid recompiling the entire tree
-# unnecessarily. Therefore config.status will update a timestamp file
-# everytime it runs so that we don't trigger this rule everytime.
+# unnecessarily. Therefore we make config.status update a timestamp file
+# stamp-h everytime it runs, so that we don't trigger this rule everytime.
+# (We do trigger the null rule for stamp-h to config.h everytime; so it's
+# important for that rule to be null!)
 #
 # Of course you need to turn on dependency tracking to get any
-# dependencies on config.h
+# dependencies on config.h.
 $(top_builddir)/src/include/config.h: $(top_builddir)/src/include/stamp-h
+
 $(top_builddir)/src/include/stamp-h: $(top_srcdir)/src/include/config.h.in $(top_builddir)/config.status
 	cd $(top_builddir) && CONFIG_FILES= CONFIG_HEADERS=src/include/config.h ./config.status
-	echo >$@
 
 # When configure changes, rerun configure with the same options as
 # last time. To change configure, you need to run autoconf manually.