diff --git a/autoconf/m4/pa_add_langflags.m4 b/autoconf/m4/pa_add_langflags.m4
index cc2baded..05c3114f 100644
--- a/autoconf/m4/pa_add_langflags.m4
+++ b/autoconf/m4/pa_add_langflags.m4
@@ -17,9 +17,11 @@ m4_defun([_PA_LANGFLAG_VAR],
  [m4_fatal([PA_ADD_LANGFLAGS: Unknown language: $1])])])
 
 AC_DEFUN([PA_ADD_LANGFLAGS],
-[m4_set_foreach(PA_LANG_SEEN_SET, [lang],
- [_pa_flag_found=no
-  m4_foreach_w([flag], [$1],
-  [AS_IF([test $_pa_flag_found = no],
-   [PA_ADD_FLAGS(_PA_LANGFLAG_VAR(lang),flag,[],[_pa_flag_found=yes])])
-   ])])])
+[m4_pushdef([_pa_langflags],m4_dquote($1))dnl
+m4_set_foreach(_PA_LANG_SEEN_SET,[_pa_lang],dnl
+[_pa_flag_found=no
+ m4_foreach_w([_pa_flag], _pa_langflags,
+ [AS_IF([test $_pa_flag_found = no],
+  [PA_ADD_FLAGS(_PA_LANGFLAG_VAR(_pa_lang),_pa_flag,[],[_pa_flag_found=yes])])
+  ])])
+m4_popdef([_pa_langflags])])
diff --git a/autoconf/m4/pa_option_lto.m4 b/autoconf/m4/pa_option_lto.m4
index b33b9c09..ea5456b6 100644
--- a/autoconf/m4/pa_option_lto.m4
+++ b/autoconf/m4/pa_option_lto.m4
@@ -10,7 +10,8 @@ AC_DEFUN([PA_OPTION_LTO],
 [PA_ARG_BOOL([lto],
  [Try to enable link-time optimization for this compiler],
  [$1],
- [PA_ADD_LANGFLAGS([-flto])
+ [PA_ADD_LANGFLAGS([-flto=auto -flto])
+PA_ADD_LANGFLAGS([-ffat-lto-objects])
 dnl Note: we use _PROG rather than _TOOL since we are prepending the full
 dnl CC name which ought to already contain the host triplet if needed
    ccbase=`echo "$CC" | awk '{ print $1; }'`
diff --git a/autoconf/m4/pa_prog_cc.m4 b/autoconf/m4/pa_prog_cc.m4
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0debe5d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/autoconf/m4/pa_prog_cc.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+dnl --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+dnl PA_PROG_CC()
+dnl
+dnl Similar to AC_PROG_CC, but add a prototype for main() to
+dnl AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT to avoid -Werror from breaking compilation.
+dnl --------------------------------------------------------------------------
+AC_DEFUN([PA_PROG_CC],
+[AC_PROG_CC
+ AS_IF([test x$ac_cv_prog != xno],
+ [ac_includes_default="$ac_includes_default
+#ifndef __cplusplus
+extern int main(void);
+#endif"])])
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 4260471c..0c892cc2 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ if test ! -f autoconf/aclocal.m4; then
     # aclocal failed, revert to previous files
     mv -f autoconf/m4.old/*.m4 autoconf/m4/
     mv -f autoconf/aclocal.m4.old autoconf/aclocal.m4
+    exit 1
 fi
 rm -rf autoconf/*m4.old
 "$AUTOHEADER" -B autoconf
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index e30125b2..77c72be5 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ dnl the best very slow and doesn't buy us a single thing at all.
 PA_CROSS_COMPILE
 
 dnl Enable any available C extensions
-AC_PROG_CC
+PA_PROG_CC
 AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
 PA_ADD_CPPFLAGS([-std=c17], [], [],
 [PA_ADD_CPPFLAGS([-std=c11], [], [],