How to automatically get missing files when changing configure.ac?

[Jeff Johnston]

If a configure.ac file is edited and the following added:

LT_INIT
AC_PROG_LIBTOOL

The make can fail when it tries to do an automake and ltmain.sh is missing.

How does one set up automake to use the --add-missing parameter 
automatically?  It's not recognized as an option to use with 
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE) and the generated call to AUTOMAKE in the Makefile 
does not use an option variable that can be set.

Should this be used by default in the Makefile when maintainer mode is 
enabled?

-- Jeff J.