diff --git a/meta/classes/autotools.bbclass b/meta/classes/autotools.bbclass
index 4c4bf87..a5997c5 100644
--- a/meta/classes/autotools.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/autotools.bbclass
@@ -89,6 +89,27 @@ oe_runconf () {
 
 AUTOTOOLS_AUXDIR ?= "${S}"
 
+CONFIGURESTAMPFILE = "${WORKDIR}/configure.sstate"
+
+autotools_preconfigure() {
+	if [ -n "${CONFIGURESTAMPFILE}" -a -e "${CONFIGURESTAMPFILE}" ]; then
+		if [ "`cat ${CONFIGURESTAMPFILE}`" != "${BB_TASKHASH}" -a "${S}" != "${B}" ]; then
+			echo "Previously configured separate build directory detected, cleaning ${B}"
+			rm -rf ${B}
+			mkdir ${B}
+		fi
+	fi
+}
+
+autotools_postconfigure(){
+	if [ -n "${CONFIGURESTAMPFILE}" ]; then
+		echo ${BB_TASKHASH} > ${CONFIGURESTAMPFILE}
+	fi
+}
+
+do_configure[prefuncs] += "autotools_preconfigure"
+do_configure[postfuncs] += "autotools_postconfigure"
+
 autotools_do_configure() {
 	case ${PN} in
 	autoconf*)