diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index ad653cd..0dc0324 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -9,4 +9,8 @@ cd "$srcdir"
 autoreconf -fvi || exit $?
 
 cd "$olddir"
+
+git config --local --get format.subjectPrefix >/dev/null 2>&1 ||
+    git config --local format.subjectPrefix "PATCH libevdev"
+
 test -n "$NOCONFIGURE" || exec "$srcdir"/configure "$@"