diff --git a/bochs/build/batch-build.perl b/bochs/build/batch-build.perl
index 4d68333a2..854e08824 100755
--- a/bochs/build/batch-build.perl
+++ b/bochs/build/batch-build.perl
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl
+#####################################################################
+# $Id: batch-build.perl,v 1.2 2002-09-15 14:35:38 bdenney Exp $
+#####################################################################
 #
 # Batch build tool for multiple configurations
 #
@@ -11,19 +14,17 @@
 # --nohup --parallel: parallel, output to nohup.out
 # --parallel: parallel, spawn xterm for each
 #
-# Testing:
-# no args: good
-# nohup: good
-# parallel: ?
-# nohup parallel: ?
 
 sub usage {
   print <<EOF;
 Usage: $0 [--nohup] [--parallel]
-
 --nohup causes the output of all compiles to go into nohup.out
 --parallel causes all compiles to be run in parallel
 
+Usage: $0 --clean
+--clean erases the build directories and recreates them from scratch
+
+Combinations of nohup and parallel:
 no args: serial compile, output goes to stdout
 --nohup:  serial compile, output goes into individual nohup.out files
 --nohup --parallel: parallel compile, output goes to individual nohup.out files
@@ -35,10 +36,12 @@ $DEBUG=0;
 $pwd = `pwd`;
 chop $pwd;
 
-# create all the configurations that we should test
+# create all the configurations that we should test.  The first argument
+# is the configuration name, which must be a valid directory name.  To be
+# safe, don't put spaces, slashes, ".", or ".." in here.
 add_configuration ('normal', 
   '');
-add_configuration ('debug',
+add_configuration ('dbg',
   '--enable-debugger');
 add_configuration ('smp2',
   '--enable-processors=2');
@@ -57,10 +60,13 @@ add_configuration ('wx-64bit',
 add_configuration ('wx-64bit-d',
   '--with-wx --enable-x86-64 --enable-debugger --disable-readline');
 
-$nohup = 0;
-$parallel = 0;
+my $nohup = 0;
+my $parallel = 0;
+my $clean = 0;
 foreach my $arg (@ARGV) {
-  if ($arg eq '--nohup') {
+  if ($arg eq '--clean') {
+    $clean = 1;
+  } elsif ($arg eq '--nohup') {
     $nohup = 1;
   } elsif ($arg eq '--parallel') {
     $parallel = 1;
@@ -69,18 +75,51 @@ foreach my $arg (@ARGV) {
   }
 }
 
+# this script may be run from various directories, and this affects 
+# the path to the configure command.  Try to figure out where the configure
+# command is found, and set up the build.sh scripts accordingly.  If it
+# can't be found, spit out an error now instead of later.
+my @configurepath_tries = ("configure", "../configure", "../../configure");
+my $configurepath;
+foreach my $trypath (@configurepath_tries) {
+  if (-x $trypath) {
+    print "Found configure at $configurepath.\n" if $DEBUG;
+    $configurepath = $trypath;
+  }
+}
+if (!defined $configurepath) {
+  print <<EOF;
+ERROR I could not locate the configure script.  This script is intended
+to be run from the bochs main directory or a subdirectory of it.  Examples:
+ 1) cd $BOCHS; ./build/batch-build.perl
+ 2) cd $BOCHS/build; ./batch-build.perl
+
+Here are the places that I tried to find the configure script:
+EOF
+  foreach (@configurepath_tries) {
+    print "  $_\n";
+  }
+  exit 1;
+}
+
 for (my $i=0; $i <= $#config_names; $i++) {
-  my $name = $config_names[$i];
+  my $name = "build-$config_names[$i]";
   my $options = $config_opts[$i];
   die if (!defined $name || !defined $options);
   print "Compiling '$name' with opts '$options'\n" if $DEBUG;
+  if ($clean) {
+    my $rmcmd = "rm -rf $name";
+    print "Removing directory $name\n";
+    system $rmcmd;
+    next;
+  }
   if (! -d $name) { mkdir $name, 0755; }
   $maybe_nohup = $nohup? "nohup" : "";
   open (BUILD, ">$name/build.sh");
   print BUILD <<BUILD_EOF;
 #!/bin/bash
 echo Running the configure script
-$maybe_nohup ../../configure $options
+$maybe_nohup ../$configurepath $options
 if test $? != 0; then
   echo Configure failed.
   exit 1
@@ -138,6 +177,10 @@ XTI_EOF
   system $cmd;
 }
 
+print "\n"x2;
+print "batch-build script is done.\n";
+exit 0;
+
 sub add_configuration {
   my ($name, $opts) = @_;
   push @config_names, $name;