diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 24e94efb6..dc7ff7ad2 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2005-03-10  Roland Illig  <roland.illig@gmx.de>
+
+	* autogen.sh: Made the gettext version check more portable. The
+	actual sed command is unchanged.
+
 2005-02-26  Miguel de Icaza  <miguel@novell.com>
 
 	* doc/mc.1.in: Replace M-char with Alt-char everywhere, which is
diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index 8f009f8c9..1d70cb8ca 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -30,17 +30,25 @@ if test ! -d config; then
 fi
 
 # Ensure that gettext is reasonably new.
-gettext_ver=`$GETTEXTIZE --version | \
-  sed '2,$d;			# remove all but the first line
-       s/.* //;			# take text after the last space
-       s/-.*//;			# strip "-pre" or "-rc" at the end
-       s/\([^.][^.]*\)/0\1/g;	# prepend 0 to every token
-       s/0\([^.][^.]\)/\1/g;	# strip leading 0 from long tokens
-       s/$/.00.00/;		# add .00.00 for short version strings
-       s/\.//g;			# remove dots
-       s/\(......\).*/\1/;	# leave only 6 leading digits
-       '`
 
+# remove all but the first line
+sed_cmd="sed -e '2,\$d'"
+# take text after the last space
+sed_cmd="${sed_cmd} -e 's/.* //'"
+# strip "-pre" or "-rc" at the end
+sed_cmd="${sed_cmd} -e 's/-.*//'"
+# prepend 0 to every token
+sed_cmd="${sed_cmd} -e 's/\\([^.][^.]*\\)/0\\1/g'"
+# strip leading 0 from long tokens
+sed_cmd="${sed_cmd} -e 's/0\\([^.][^.]\\)/\\1/g'"
+# add .00.00 for short version strings
+sed_cmd="${sed_cmd} -e 's/\$/.00.00/'"
+# remove dots
+sed_cmd="${sed_cmd} -e 's/\\.//g'"
+# leave only 6 leading digits
+sed_cmd="${sed_cmd} -e 's/\\(......\\).*/\\1/'"
+
+gettext_ver=`$GETTEXTIZE --version | eval ${sed_cmd}`
 if test -z "$gettext_ver"; then
   echo "Cannot determine version of gettext" 2>&1
   exit 1