diff --git a/SWIG/autogen.sh b/SWIG/autogen.sh
index 0c62f3a0b..11db63e07 100755
--- a/SWIG/autogen.sh
+++ b/SWIG/autogen.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,14 @@ set -x
 test -d Tools/config || mkdir Tools/config
 aclocal -I Tools/config
 autoheader
-libtoolize --force --copy
+
+# Note: on Mac OS X there is a different program 'libtoolize' that is definitely not
+# what we want to run.  Instead, we want to use 'glibtoolize'
+
+if test -x /usr/bin/glibtoolize; then
+   glibtoolize --force --copy
+else
+   libtoolize --force --copy
+fi
 automake --add-missing --copy --force-missing
 autoconf