diff --git a/Makefile.devel b/Makefile.devel
index bdd3d4237..a3e89ddc1 100644
--- a/Makefile.devel
+++ b/Makefile.devel
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ distclean: devclean clean
 #
 autoloads: $(EL)
 	@echo "***** MAKING AUTOGENERATED AUTOLOADS  ****"
-	$(BATCHEMACS) -eval '(setq autoload-package-name "proof" generated-autoload-file "$(PWD)/generic/proof-autoloads.el")' -f batch-update-autoloads  generic/ lib/ coq/ qrhl/
+	$(BATCHEMACS) -eval '(setq autoload-package-name "proof" generated-autoload-file "$(PWD)/generic/proof-autoloads.el")' -eval "(require 'autoload)" -f batch-update-autoloads  generic/ lib/ coq/ qrhl/
 
 ############################################################
 #
diff --git a/generic/proof-autoloads.el b/generic/proof-autoloads.el
index 8090aa0c9..13cac4fa3 100644
--- a/generic/proof-autoloads.el
+++ b/generic/proof-autoloads.el
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-;;; proof-autoloads.el --- automatically extracted autoloads
+;;; proof-autoloads.el --- automatically extracted autoloads  -*- lexical-binding: t; -*-
 
 ;; This file is part of Proof General.