diff --git a/meta-oe/classes/autotools-bootstrap.bbclass b/meta-oe/classes/autotools-bootstrap.bbclass
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8d7af1b472
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meta-oe/classes/autotools-bootstrap.bbclass
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# Class to inherit when you want to build with autotools after running bootstrap
+inherit autotools
+
+DEPENDS += "gnulib"
+
+do_configure_prepend() {
+    currdir=`pwd`
+    cd ${S}
+
+    # avoid bootstrap cloning gnulib on every configure
+    cat >.gitmodules <<EOF
+[submodule "gnulib"]
+	path = gnulib
+	url = git://git.sv.gnu.org/gnulib
+EOF
+    cp -rf ${STAGING_DATADIR}/gnulib ${S}
+
+    # --force to avoid errors on reconfigure e.g if recipes changed we depend on
+    # | bootstrap: running: libtoolize --quiet
+    # | libtoolize:   error: 'libltdl/COPYING.LIB' exists: use '--force' to overwrite
+    # | ...
+    ./bootstrap --force
+    cd $currdir
+}