Should autoconf not ignore the EMACS environment variable so one doesn't get errors like this:
configure: loading site script /home/rrt/.config.site configure: loading cache /home/rrt/local/i686/var/config.cache configure: error: `EMACS' was not set in the previous run configure: error: in `/home/rrt/Software/zile-stable': configure: error: changes in the environment can compromise the build configure: error: run `make distclean' and/or `rm /home/rrt/local/i686/var/config.cache' and start over ? -- http://rrt.sc3d.org