Should -i mkdir?

[Akim Demaille]

Several projects used config/ without any hand written file in it,
thanks to Automake's wonderful ability to ship the files all by
itself.  But then, often, such projects, when just checked out, or
de-tar'ed by hand, don't have a config/.  Et soudain, c'est
l'accident :

~/src/vampire % autoreconf -fvi                                   nostromo 9:55
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Libtool
autoreconf: running: /usr/local/bin/autoconf --force
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Autoheader
autoreconf: running: automake --add-missing --copy --force-missing
cp: cannot create regular file `config/install-sh': No such file or directory
configure.ac: installing `config/install-sh'
configure.ac:     error while copying
cp: cannot create regular file `config/mkinstalldirs': No such file or directory
configure.ac: installing `config/mkinstalldirs'
configure.ac:     error while copying
cp: cannot create regular file `config/missing': No such file or directory
configure.ac: installing `config/missing'
configure.ac:     error while copying
cp: cannot create regular file `config/mdate-sh': No such file or directory
doc/texinfo/Makefile.am:20: installing `config/mdate-sh'
doc/texinfo/Makefile.am:20:     error while copying
cp: cannot create regular file `config/texinfo.tex': No such file or directory
doc/texinfo/Makefile.am:20: installing `config/texinfo.tex'
doc/texinfo/Makefile.am:20:     error while copying
autoreconf: automake failed with exit status: 1



So, should automake -i make sure the directory exists and create it if
needed?  Or that would be considered unsafe (a typo in the name, et
voilà, a nasty dir pollutes your codeshore).