diff --git a/srcpkgs/automake/template b/srcpkgs/automake/template
index c6e0657bfe9..7a7fa112153 100644
--- a/srcpkgs/automake/template
+++ b/srcpkgs/automake/template
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ build_style=gnu-configure
 make_check_args="${makejobs}"
 hostmakedepends="perl autoconf"
 depends="${hostmakedepends}"
-checkdepends="cscope dejagnu emacs expect flex gettext-devel glib-devel libtool perl pkg-config
- sharutils texinfo vala lzip xz zip zstd"
+# ideally we'd like libtool here too, but that creates a build cycle
+checkdepends="flex gettext-devel pkg-config"
 short_desc="GNU Standards-compliant Makefile generator"
 maintainer="Enno Boland <gottox@voidlinux.org>"
 license="GPL-2.0-or-later"