Packaging Autotool files from a subdirectory

[Eric Lemings]

Hi,

Over the years, I believe I've seen a few distributions that have
platform-indepent files (README, ChangeLog, etc.) in the top-level
directory of the package and relocate the Autotool-related files
into a ./build/unix subdirectory for example.

Is that possible and, if so, is this documented somewhere?  Where
can I find packages that are distributed this way?

Thanks,
Eric.