$ make bootstrap
The bootstrap process makes sure all necessary files are rebuilt
-before it builds the final Emacs binary.
-
-If 'make bootstrap' fails, it may be necessary to do 'make maintainer-clean'
-followed by configure before trying it again.
+before it builds the final Emacs binary. Unfortunately, it doesn't
+always work when there are stale files from a previous build in the
+directory tree.
+
+So if 'make bootstrap' fails, it may be necessary first to do 'make
+maintainer-clean' to clear out these stale files. You can then try
+again, starting with `./configure'. (Occasionally the loaddefs.el
+file gets into a bad state due to changes in the Lisp libraries; this
+procedure forces it to be regenerated.)
Normally, it is not necessary to use "make bootstrap" after every CVS
update. Unless there are problems, we suggest using the following