../configure question

[Troy Cauble]

I am cleaning up some autoconf scripts to support
multiple builds against the same source, as in

  mkdir build_dir1
  cd build_dir1
  ../configure


In the middle of this large autoconf based project
there's a third party module that does not use autoconf.
"./configure" style builds work because make just finds
the stock Makefile in the source directory.  "../configure"
style builds break because autoconf didn't create a
directory and Makefile in the $(top_builddir) tree.

Is there a standard way to work around this other than
adding Makefile.am's to the third party module?

I imagine that the workaround would involve copying the
entire source module to the $(top_builddir) tree...

Thanks,
-troy