diff -u -ru autoconf-2.57-orig/lib/autoconf/status.m4 autoconf-2.57/lib/autoconf/status.m4
--- autoconf-2.57-orig/lib/autoconf/status.m4	Tue Nov 12 11:54:46 2002
+++ autoconf-2.57/lib/autoconf/status.m4	Thu Dec 11 07:35:34 2003
@@ -1026,11 +1026,18 @@
 dnl    mv $tmp/out $ac_file
 dnl  fi
   if test x"$ac_file" != x-; then
-    mv $tmp/out $ac_file
+    rm -f $ac_file
+dnl Propagate 'executable' attribute of first input file.
+    for f in $ac_file_inputs; do
+      cp $f $ac_file
+      chmod u+w $ac_file
+      break
+    done
+    cat $tmp/out >$ac_file
   else
     cat $tmp/out
-    rm -f $tmp/out
   fi
+  rm -f $tmp/out
 
 m4_ifset([AC_LIST_FILES_COMMANDS],
 [  # Run the commands associated with the file.