diff --git a/charhist/GNUmakefile b/charhist/GNUmakefile
index f5db7a3..9fdd420 100644
--- a/charhist/GNUmakefile
+++ b/charhist/GNUmakefile
@@ -10,4 +10,12 @@ chartab:
 clean:
 	rm -f charhist core foo bar baz
 
+distclean: clean
+	rm -f GNUmakerules GNUmakevars
+
+GNUmakevars: GNUmakevars.sh
+	sh ./$^ > $@
+GNUmakerules: GNUmakerules.pl
+	perl ./$^ > $@
+
 install: $(BINDIR)/charhist
diff --git a/charhist/GNUmakerules.pl b/charhist/GNUmakerules.pl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8f30daa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/charhist/GNUmakerules.pl
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl
+use warnings;
+use strict;
+
+print "\$(BINDIR)/%: %\n";
+print "\tcp \$^ \$@\n";
+print "\$(MAN1DIR)/%: %\n";
+print "\tcp \$^ \$@\n";
diff --git a/charhist/GNUmakevars.sh b/charhist/GNUmakevars.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a7de4ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/charhist/GNUmakevars.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+prefix=${prefix:-/usr/local}
+echo "BINDIR=$prefix/bin"
+echo
+echo "all:"