Typical usage for the new build is:

> mkdir outputdir
> cd outputdir
> <path>/configure
> make

if you then do

> make dist-clean

then it not only deletes the entire contents of the current directory, it deletes the current directory too! This prevents you from re-running configure as advised.

embedsrc /scratch/dh198349/build-infra-open > make dist-clean
Cleaned everything, you will have to re-run configure.
embedsrc /scratch/dh198349/build-infra-open > pwd
/scratch/dh198349/build-infra-open
embedsrc /scratch/dh198349/build-infra-open > ls -al .
total 0
embedsrc /scratch/dh198349/build-infra-open > ls -l `pwd`
ls: cannot access /scratch/dh198349/build-infra-open: No such file or directory