diff --git a/buildconf b/buildconf
index ab13f0e..bda598e 100755
--- a/buildconf
+++ b/buildconf
@@ -3,5 +3,9 @@
 ${LIBTOOLIZE:-libtoolize} --copy --automake --force
 ${ACLOCAL:-aclocal} -I m4 $ACLOCAL_FLAGS
 ${AUTOHEADER:-autoheader}
+# copy the private libssh2_config.h.in to the examples dir so that
+# it can be included without pointing the include path to the private
+# source dir
+cp src/libssh2_config.h.in example/simple/config.h.in
 ${AUTOCONF:-autoconf}
 ${AUTOMAKE:-automake} --add-missing --copy