How do I modify a debian/ubuntu based gnu autotooling build to fedora 32?

Slurm is an open source project using gnu autotools to build. The problem is as follows: when applying autoreconf to the project, the Makefile.in files created are missing the runstatedir macro. I'm using Fedora 32, and after filing a bug with the project owners (Schedmd) I've received a WONTFIX resolution with the following answer : > This is due to differences between the Debian/Ubuntu vs. Fedora > autotools packaging. > > The build tooling is managed on Debian/Ubuntu - which does not produce > such a diff today. Thus I won't be applying this. My question is - can I modify anything in the project to make it "universally" correct - that is - ensure autoreconf does the right thing on both Fedora and Ubuntu? The Fedora autotools package used is current as of this writing: rpm autoconf-2.69-33.fc32.noarch I have no idea which autoconf version is used in Debian/Ubuntu.