diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index bb9d8dc7f..8dedf91f2 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2010-02-12  suzuki toshiya  <mpsuzuki@hiroshima-u.ac.jp>
+
+	Improve autotool version checking to work with beta releases.
+
+	* autogen.sh (check_tool_version): Improve the extraction of version
+	number from "tool --version" output. Some beta releases of autotools
+	have extra strings before version number.
+
 2010-02-12  suzuki toshiya  <mpsuzuki@hiroshima-u.ac.jp>
 
 	Fix overallocating bug in FT_Outline_New_Internal().
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 16c335fd5..60ed3ba69 100644
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -95,10 +95,11 @@ compare_to_minimum_version ()
 check_tool_version ()
 {
   field=$5
+  # assume the output of "[TOOL] --version" is "toolname (GNU toolname foo bar) version"
   if test "$field"x = x; then
-    field=4  # default to 4 for all GNU autotools
+    field=3  # default to 3 for all GNU autotools, after filtering enclosed string
   fi
-  version=`$1 --version | head -1 | cut -d ' ' -f $field`
+  version=`$1 --version | head -1 | sed 's/([^)]*)/()/g' | cut -d ' ' -f $field`
   version_check=`compare_to_minimum_version $version $4`
   if test "$version_check"x = 0x; then
     echo "ERROR: Your version of the \`$2' tool is too old."