autoreconf doesn't install Makefile.in.in files if AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION is not used

[Guillaume Rousse]

Hello list.

I'm trying to use automake builtin support for a perl project (sympa). 
According to the gettext manual, I only need AM_PO_SUBDIRS macro, not 
AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION, as I only need PO files handling, and not native 
code linking support. However, this is not enough to have autoreconf 
create Makefile.in.in files in po directories (I have two of them), as 
it considers gettext is not used:

address@hidden sympa-autotools-cleanup]$ autoreconf  -v
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal -I m4
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Libtool
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Autoheader
autoreconf: running: automake --no-force
autoreconf: Leaving directory `.'

If I try to invoke gettextize manually, it only creates Makefile.in.in 
in the po directory, and not in the additional po-wwsympa one (I have 
two pot files, hence the need for an additional directory), and also add 
a lot of uneeded m4 files:
address@hidden sympa-autotools-cleanup]$ gettextize
Copying file ABOUT-NLS
Copying file config.rpath
Not copying intl/ directory.
Copying file po/Makefile.in.in
Copying file po/boldquot.sed
Copying file po/address@hidden
Copying file po/address@hidden
Copying file po/insert-header.sin
Copying file po/Makevars.template
Copying file po/quot.sed
Copying file po/remove-potcdate.sin
Copying file po/Rules-quot
Adding an entry to po/ChangeLog (backup is in po/ChangeLog~)
Copying file m4/gettext.m4
Copying file m4/iconv.m4
Copying file m4/lib-ld.m4
Copying file m4/lib-link.m4
Copying file m4/lib-prefix.m4
Copying file m4/nls.m4
Copying file m4/po.m4
Copying file m4/progtest.m4
Updating configure.ac (backup is in configure.ac~)
Adding an entry to ChangeLog (backup is in ChangeLog~)

Please use AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) in order to cause autoconfiguration
to look for an external libintl.

Please run 'aclocal -I m4' to regenerate the aclocal.m4 file.
You need aclocal from GNU automake 1.9 (or newer) to do this.
Then run 'autoconf' to regenerate the configure file.

You might also want to copy the convenience header file gettext.h
from the /usr/share/gettext directory into your package.
It is a wrapper around <libintl.h> that implements the configure 
--disable-nls
option.

Press Return to acknowledge the previous three paragraphs.

autopoint doesn't works either:
address@hidden sympa-autotools-cleanup]$ autopoint
autopoint: *** Missing version: please specify in configure.ac through a 
line 'AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(x.yy.zz)' the gettext version the package 
is using
autopoint: *** Stop.

Does it means I'm condemned to import two generated Makefile.in.in files 
in the repository, or to use a wrapper over autoreconf to handle this 
specific case ?