Problem with libtool 1.4.3 and multiple references to as yetuninstalled libraries in .libs

[Fred Cox]

Here's my problem:

address@hidden common]$ /bin/sh ../libtool --mode=link g++ -DSYSLOG=1  
-DUSE_NSPR=1 -D_REENTRANT -g   -o libPSTNbind9.la -rpath 
/tmp/fred/pstn/lib  SMTP_Client.lo  -lPSTNcommon -lmissing 
-L/opt/Postini/e2_0/lib -lnspr4    -lresolv -lm     
rm -fr .libs/libPSTNbind9.la .libs/libPSTNbind9.* .libs/libPSTNbind9.*
gcc -shared  SMTP_Client.lo  -Wl,--rpath 
-Wl,/home/fred/src/pstn/common/.libs -Wl,--rpath 
-Wl,/home/fred/src/pstn/common/.libs/.libs -Wl,--rpath 
-Wl,/tmp/fred/pstn/lib  -L/home/fred/src/pstn/common/.libs 
/home/fred/src/pstn/common/.libs/libPSTNcommon.so 
/home/fred/src/pstn/common/.libs/.libs/libmissing.so 
-L/opt/Postini/e2_0/lib -lnspr4 -lresolv -lm    -Wl,-soname 
-Wl,libPSTNbind9.so.0 -o .libs/libPSTNbind9.so.0.0.0
gcc: /home/fred/src/pstn/common/.libs/.libs/libmissing.so: No such file 
or directory
address@hidden common]$ ls .libs/lib
libmissing.la           libmissing.so.0.0.0     libPSTNcommon.so.0
libmissing.lai          libPSTNcommon.la        libPSTNcommon.so.0.0.0
libmissing.so           libPSTNcommon.lai       
libmissing.so.0         libPSTNcommon.so        
address@hidden common]$ ../libtool --version
ltmain.sh (GNU libtool) 1.4.3 (1.922.2.111 2002/10/23 02:54:36)

When I link against only one uninstalled shared library from my build 
directory, it works, but when there are two, I get the .libs/.libs 
problem.  I imagine that if I had three, I'd get .libs/.libs/.libs, but 
that's pure speculation.

Am I (autoconf/automake) doing something libtool isn't meant to do, or 
is there a bug here?

Thanks,

Fred Cox