--- configure.ac.orig	2024-09-01 19:17:42 UTC
+++ configure.ac
@@ -165,21 +165,21 @@ dnl See if git exists.  If it does, update VERSION to 
 
 
 dnl See if git exists.  If it does, update VERSION to include a git tag
-AC_CHECK_PROG(git_found, git, true, false)
-if test x"${git_found}" = xtrue; then
-    # Test to see if git describe works (discarding any output).  If
-    # it works, use it.  Otherwise, keep existing value of VERSION.
-    # (git describe fails if git is executed in a non-Git directory, e.g.,
-    # an unpacked tarball. Since the exit codes of git describe are undocumented,
-    # we cannot distinguish that from a missing annotated tag.
-    # Play it safe by refusing to change VERSION.)
-    if git describe > /dev/null 2>&1; then
-        VERSION="`git describe --dirty`"
-        # When building RPMs, hyphens in the version are not allowed, so
-        # replace them with underscores.
-        VERSION=`echo $VERSION | sed 's;-;_;g'`
-    fi
-fi
+dnl AC_CHECK_PROG(git_found, git, true, false)
+dnl if test x"${git_found}" = xtrue; then
+dnl     # Test to see if git describe works (discarding any output).  If
+dnl     # it works, use it.  Otherwise, keep existing value of VERSION.
+dnl     # (git describe fails if git is executed in a non-Git directory, e.g.,
+dnl     # an unpacked tarball. Since the exit codes of git describe are undocumented,
+dnl     # we cannot distinguish that from a missing annotated tag.
+dnl     # Play it safe by refusing to change VERSION.)
+dnl     if git describe > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+dnl         VERSION="`git describe --dirty`"
+dnl         # When building RPMs, hyphens in the version are not allowed, so
+dnl         # replace them with underscores.
+dnl         VERSION=`echo $VERSION | sed 's;-;_;g'`
+dnl     fi
+dnl fi
 
 dnl Parses the version number for the manual
 manual_version=`echo $VERSION | sed 's+branch_++; s+_base++; s+_dirty++; s+_+.+g'`
@@ -644,7 +644,7 @@ if test x"${enable_build_docs}" = xtrue ; then
 	dnl assuming that the end of the version string contains the
 	dnl version number consisting of digits separated by a period.
 	dnl This allows for version numbers like 6.8.90.
-	makeinfo_version_string=`expr "\`makeinfo --version | head -1\`" : '.* \([[.0-9]]\+\)'`
+	makeinfo_version_string=`expr "$(makeinfo --version | head -1)" : '.* \([[.0-9]]\+\)'`
 	dnl echo Makeinfo version ${makeinfo_version}
 
 	dnl From makeinfo_version, extract out the major and minor