diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index a2569b84..bb0b16d9 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
 AC_GNU_SOURCE
 AC_CANONICAL_HOST
 
-AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign dist-bzip2])
+AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.12 foreign dist-bzip2])
 AM_PATH_PYTHON([3],, [:])
 
 AC_PROG_CC