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	Wed Dec 10 16:19:19 2003
@@ -1027,6 +1027,11 @@
 dnl  fi
   if test x"$ac_file" != x-; then
     mv $tmp/out $ac_file
+    for f in $ac_file_inputs; do
+      if ls -ld $f | grep -q '^...x'; then
+        chmod +x $ac_file
+      fi
+    done
   else
     cat $tmp/out
     rm -f $tmp/out