diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index a6ab478d9..fe051b087 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -18,6 +18,14 @@ if test -z $GTKDOCIZE; then
         echo "EXTRA_DIST =" > gtk-doc.make
 else
         gtkdocize || exit $?
+        # we need to patch gtk-doc.make to support pretty output with
+        # libtool 1.x.  Should be fixed in the next version of gtk-doc.
+        # To be more resilient with the various versions of gtk-doc one
+        # can find, just sed gkt-doc.make rather than patch it.
+        sed -e 's#) --mode=compile#) --tag=CC --mode=compile#' gtk-doc.make > gtk-doc.temp \
+                && mv gtk-doc.temp gtk-doc.make
+        sed -e 's#) --mode=link#) --tag=CC --mode=link#' gtk-doc.make > gtk-doc.temp \
+                && mv gtk-doc.temp gtk-doc.make
 fi
 
 GLIB_GETTEXTIZE=`which glib-gettextize`