diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/coreutils/coreutils_6.9.bb b/meta/recipes-core/coreutils/coreutils_6.9.bb
index 2654028bcf..eeeab050e4 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/coreutils/coreutils_6.9.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/coreutils/coreutils_6.9.bb
@@ -57,6 +57,12 @@ base_bindir_progs = "cat chgrp chmod chown cp date dd echo false kill ln ls mkdi
 
 sbindir_progs= "chroot"
 
+# Let aclocal use the relative path for the m4 file rather than the
+# absolute since coreutils has a lot of m4 files, otherwise there might
+# be an "Argument list too long" error when it is built in a long/deep
+# directory.
+acpaths = "-I ./m4"
+
 do_install() {
 	autotools_do_install
 
diff --git a/meta/recipes-core/coreutils/coreutils_8.21.bb b/meta/recipes-core/coreutils/coreutils_8.21.bb
index 35c9100ee4..da14303286 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-core/coreutils/coreutils_8.21.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-core/coreutils/coreutils_8.21.bb
@@ -47,6 +47,12 @@ base_bindir_progs = "cat chgrp chmod chown cp date dd echo false kill ln ls mkdi
 
 sbindir_progs= "chroot"
 
+# Let aclocal use the relative path for the m4 file rather than the
+# absolute since coreutils has a lot of m4 files, otherwise there might
+# be an "Argument list too long" error when it is built in a long/deep
+# directory.
+acpaths = "-I ./m4"
+
 # Deal with a separate builddir failure if src doesn't exist when creating version.c/version.h
 do_compile_prepend () {
 	mkdir -p ${B}/src