diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index a7a30abba3..7fe7853226 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ MODULES =					\
   guix/snix.scm					\
   guix.scm					\
   distro.scm					\
+  distro/packages/autotools.scm			\
   distro/packages/base.scm			\
   distro/packages/bash.scm			\
   distro/packages/bdw-gc.scm			\
diff --git a/distro/packages/autotools.scm b/distro/packages/autotools.scm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..55b052bbae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/distro/packages/autotools.scm
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+;;; Guix --- Nix package management from Guile.         -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+;;; Copyright (C) 2012 Nikita Karetnikov <nikita@karetnikov.org>
+;;;
+;;; This file is part of Guix.
+;;;
+;;; Guix is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+;;; under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+;;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+;;; your option) any later version.
+;;;
+;;; Guix is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+;;; WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+;;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+;;; GNU General Public License for more details.
+;;;
+;;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+;;; along with Guix.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+(define-module (distro packages autotools)
+  #:use-module (distro packages perl)
+  #:use-module (distro packages m4)
+  #:use-module (guix packages)
+  #:use-module (guix download)
+  #:use-module (guix build-system gnu))
+
+(define-public autoconf
+  (package
+    (name "autoconf")
+    (version "2.69")
+    (source
+     (origin
+      (method url-fetch)
+      (uri (string-append "mirror://gnu/autoconf/autoconf-"
+                          version ".tar.xz"))
+      (sha256
+       (base32
+        "113nlmidxy9kjr45kg9x3ngar4951mvag1js2a3j8nxcz34wxsv4"))))
+    (build-system gnu-build-system)
+    (inputs
+     `(("perl" ,perl)
+       ("m4" ,m4)))
+    ;; XXX: testsuite: 209 and 279 failed. The latter is an impurity. It
+    ;; should use our own "cpp" instead of "/lib/cpp".
+    (arguments `(#:tests? #f))
+    (home-page
+     "http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/")
+    (synopsis
+     "GNU Autoconf, a part of the GNU Build System")
+    (description
+     "GNU Autoconf is an extensible package of M4 macros that produce
+shell scripts to automatically configure software source code
+packages.  These scripts can adapt the packages to many kinds of
+UNIX-like systems without manual user intervention.  Autoconf
+creates a configuration script for a package from a template
+file that lists the operating system features that the package
+can use, in the form of M4 macro calls.")
+    (license "GPLv3+"))) ; some files are under GPLv2+
+
+(define-public automake
+  (package
+    (name "automake")
+    (version "1.12.5")
+    (source
+     (origin
+      (method url-fetch)
+      (uri (string-append "mirror://gnu/automake/automake-"
+                          version ".tar.xz"))
+      (sha256
+       (base32
+        "1k4pa3rmj626n5d39rc9041dc71lv8nzd341k53dw07iflkwinim"))))
+    (build-system gnu-build-system)
+    (inputs
+     `(("autoconf" ,autoconf)
+       ("perl" ,perl)))
+    (home-page
+     "http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/")
+    (synopsis
+     "GNU Automake, a GNU standard-compliant makefile generator")
+    (description
+     "GNU Automake is a tool for automatically generating
+`Makefile.in' files compliant with the GNU Coding
+Standards.  Automake requires the use of Autoconf.")
+    (license "GPLv2+"))) ; some files are under GPLv3+