C Compiler dependency-file generation

[Jeff Dubrule]

Is there currently an accepted mechanism for determining whether a C
compiler is going to be able to generate dependencies the way automake
likes?

I'm currently using this function def in my acinclude.m4 file:

AC_DEFUN(AC_PROG_CC_DEPENDENCIES, [
  AC_CACHE_CHECK(
     [whether the C compilers($CC $CFLAGS $LDFLAGS) can generate dependencies],
     cc_does_dependencies, [
    AC_LANG_SAVE
    AC_LANG_C
    OLDCFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
    CFLAGS="$CFLAGS -Wp,-MD,foo.pp"
    AC_TRY_COMPILE(,[], cc_does_dependencies=yes, cc_does_dependencies=no)
    CFLAGS="$OLDCFLAGS"
    AC_LANG_RESTORE
    CC_DOES_DEPENDENCIES=$cc_does_dependencies
    AC_SUBST(CC_DOES_DEPENDENCIES)
  ])
])

Is there a better way?  Should something like this go into autoconf?

Thanks!
-jeff