diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index f2cb7e2afa..298e4d569a 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 include $(top_srcdir)/Makefile.decl
 
 SRC_SUBDIRS = gdk gtk libgail-util modules demos tests testsuite examples
-SUBDIRS = po po-properties $(SRC_SUBDIRS) docs m4macros build
+SUBDIRS = po po-properties $(SRC_SUBDIRS) docs build
 
 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 ${ACLOCAL_FLAGS}
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index d1df8eccb3..22aab3300b 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1895,7 +1895,6 @@ gdk-4.0.pc
 gtk+-4.0.pc
 gtk+-unix-print-4.0.pc
 gail-4.0.pc
-m4macros/Makefile
 po/Makefile.in
 po-properties/Makefile.in
 demos/Makefile
diff --git a/m4macros/Makefile.am b/m4macros/Makefile.am
deleted file mode 100644
index c053ced4d2..0000000000
--- a/m4macros/Makefile.am
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-include $(top_srcdir)/Makefile.decl
-
-installed_m4= gtk-3.0.m4
-
-EXTRA_DIST += $(installed_m4)
-
-m4datadir = $(datadir)/aclocal
-m4data_DATA = $(installed_m4)
-
--include $(top_srcdir)/git.mk
diff --git a/m4macros/gtk-3.0.m4 b/m4macros/gtk-3.0.m4
deleted file mode 100644
index 4fc99064c2..0000000000
--- a/m4macros/gtk-3.0.m4
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,217 +0,0 @@
-# Configure paths for GTK+
-# Owen Taylor     1997-2001
-
-dnl AM_PATH_GTK_3_0([MINIMUM-VERSION, [ACTION-IF-FOUND [, ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND [, MODULES]]]])
-dnl Test for GTK+, and define GTK_CFLAGS and GTK_LIBS, if gthread is specified in MODULES, 
-dnl pass to pkg-config
-dnl
-AC_DEFUN([AM_PATH_GTK_3_0],
-[m4_warn([obsolete], [AM_PATH_GTK_3_0 is deprecated, use PKG_CHECK_MODULES([GTK], [gtk+-3.0]) instead])
-dnl Get the cflags and libraries from pkg-config
-dnl
-AC_ARG_ENABLE(gtktest, [  --disable-gtktest       do not try to compile and run a test GTK+ program],
-		    , enable_gtktest=yes)
-  min_gtk_version=ifelse([$1], [], [3.0.0], [$1])
-
-  pkg_config_args="gtk+-3.0 >= $min_gtk_version"
-  for module in . $4
-  do
-      case "$module" in
-         gthread)
-             pkg_config_args="$pkg_config_args gthread-2.0"
-         ;;
-      esac
-  done
-
-  no_gtk=""
-
-  AC_PATH_PROG(PKG_CONFIG, pkg-config, no)
-
-  if test x$PKG_CONFIG != xno ; then
-    if $PKG_CONFIG --atleast-pkgconfig-version 0.7 ; then
-      :
-    else
-      echo "*** pkg-config too old; version 0.7 or better required."
-      no_gtk=yes
-      PKG_CONFIG=no
-    fi
-  else
-    no_gtk=yes
-  fi
-
-  AC_MSG_CHECKING(for GTK+ - version >= $min_gtk_version)
-
-  if test x$PKG_CONFIG != xno ; then
-    ## don't try to run the test against uninstalled libtool libs
-    if $PKG_CONFIG --uninstalled $pkg_config_args; then
-	  echo "Will use uninstalled version of GTK+ found in PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
-	  enable_gtktest=no
-    fi
-
-    if $PKG_CONFIG $pkg_config_args; then
-	  :
-    else
-	  no_gtk=yes
-    fi
-  fi
-
-  if test x"$no_gtk" = x ; then
-    GTK_CFLAGS=`$PKG_CONFIG $pkg_config_args --cflags`
-    GTK_LIBS=`$PKG_CONFIG $pkg_config_args --libs`
-    gtk_config_major_version=`$PKG_CONFIG --modversion gtk+-3.0 | \
-           sed 's/\([[0-9]]*\).\([[0-9]]*\).\([[0-9]]*\)/\1/'`
-    gtk_config_minor_version=`$PKG_CONFIG --modversion gtk+-3.0 | \
-           sed 's/\([[0-9]]*\).\([[0-9]]*\).\([[0-9]]*\)/\2/'`
-    gtk_config_micro_version=`$PKG_CONFIG --modversion gtk+-3.0 | \
-           sed 's/\([[0-9]]*\).\([[0-9]]*\).\([[0-9]]*\)/\3/'`
-    if test "x$enable_gtktest" = "xyes" ; then
-      ac_save_CFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
-      ac_save_LIBS="$LIBS"
-      CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $GTK_CFLAGS"
-      LIBS="$GTK_LIBS $LIBS"
-dnl
-dnl Now check if the installed GTK+ is sufficiently new. (Also sanity
-dnl checks the results of pkg-config to some extent)
-dnl
-      rm -f conf.gtktest
-      AC_TRY_RUN([
-#include <gtk/gtk.h>
-#include <stdio.h>
-#include <stdlib.h>
-
-int 
-main ()
-{
-  unsigned int major, minor, micro;
-
-  fclose (fopen ("conf.gtktest", "w"));
-
-  if (sscanf("$min_gtk_version", "%u.%u.%u", &major, &minor, &micro) != 3) {
-     printf("%s, bad version string\n", "$min_gtk_version");
-     exit(1);
-   }
-
-  if ((gtk_major_version != $gtk_config_major_version) ||
-      (gtk_minor_version != $gtk_config_minor_version) ||
-      (gtk_micro_version != $gtk_config_micro_version))
-    {
-      printf("\n*** 'pkg-config --modversion gtk+-3.0' returned %d.%d.%d, but GTK+ (%d.%d.%d)\n", 
-             $gtk_config_major_version, $gtk_config_minor_version, $gtk_config_micro_version,
-             gtk_major_version, gtk_minor_version, gtk_micro_version);
-      printf ("*** was found! If pkg-config was correct, then it is best\n");
-      printf ("*** to remove the old version of GTK+. You may also be able to fix the error\n");
-      printf("*** by modifying your LD_LIBRARY_PATH enviroment variable, or by editing\n");
-      printf("*** /etc/ld.so.conf. Make sure you have run ldconfig if that is\n");
-      printf("*** required on your system.\n");
-      printf("*** If pkg-config was wrong, set the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH\n");
-      printf("*** to point to the correct configuration files\n");
-    } 
-  else if ((gtk_major_version != GTK_MAJOR_VERSION) ||
-	   (gtk_minor_version != GTK_MINOR_VERSION) ||
-           (gtk_micro_version != GTK_MICRO_VERSION))
-    {
-      printf("*** GTK+ header files (version %d.%d.%d) do not match\n",
-	     GTK_MAJOR_VERSION, GTK_MINOR_VERSION, GTK_MICRO_VERSION);
-      printf("*** library (version %d.%d.%d)\n",
-	     gtk_major_version, gtk_minor_version, gtk_micro_version);
-    }
-  else
-    {
-      if ((gtk_major_version > major) ||
-        ((gtk_major_version == major) && (gtk_minor_version > minor)) ||
-        ((gtk_major_version == major) && (gtk_minor_version == minor) && (gtk_micro_version >= micro)))
-      {
-        return 0;
-       }
-     else
-      {
-        printf("\n*** An old version of GTK+ (%u.%u.%u) was found.\n",
-               gtk_major_version, gtk_minor_version, gtk_micro_version);
-        printf("*** You need a version of GTK+ newer than %u.%u.%u. The latest version of\n",
-	       major, minor, micro);
-        printf("*** GTK+ is always available from ftp://ftp.gtk.org.\n");
-        printf("***\n");
-        printf("*** If you have already installed a sufficiently new version, this error\n");
-        printf("*** probably means that the wrong copy of the pkg-config shell script is\n");
-        printf("*** being found. The easiest way to fix this is to remove the old version\n");
-        printf("*** of GTK+, but you can also set the PKG_CONFIG environment to point to the\n");
-        printf("*** correct copy of pkg-config. (In this case, you will have to\n");
-        printf("*** modify your LD_LIBRARY_PATH enviroment variable, or edit /etc/ld.so.conf\n");
-        printf("*** so that the correct libraries are found at run-time))\n");
-      }
-    }
-  return 1;
-}
-],, no_gtk=yes,[echo $ac_n "cross compiling; assumed OK... $ac_c"])
-       CFLAGS="$ac_save_CFLAGS"
-       LIBS="$ac_save_LIBS"
-     fi
-  fi
-  if test "x$no_gtk" = x ; then
-     AC_MSG_RESULT(yes (version $gtk_config_major_version.$gtk_config_minor_version.$gtk_config_micro_version))
-     ifelse([$2], , :, [$2])
-  else
-     AC_MSG_RESULT(no)
-     if test "$PKG_CONFIG" = "no" ; then
-       echo "*** A new enough version of pkg-config was not found."
-       echo "*** See http://pkgconfig.sourceforge.net"
-     else
-       if test -f conf.gtktest ; then
-        :
-       else
-          echo "*** Could not run GTK+ test program, checking why..."
-	  ac_save_CFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
-	  ac_save_LIBS="$LIBS"
-          CFLAGS="$CFLAGS $GTK_CFLAGS"
-          LIBS="$LIBS $GTK_LIBS"
-          AC_TRY_LINK([
-#include <gtk/gtk.h>
-#include <stdio.h>
-],      [ return ((gtk_major_version) || (gtk_minor_version) || (gtk_micro_version)); ],
-        [ echo "*** The test program compiled, but did not run. This usually means"
-          echo "*** that the run-time linker is not finding GTK+ or finding the wrong"
-          echo "*** version of GTK+. If it is not finding GTK+, you'll need to set your"
-          echo "*** LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, or edit /etc/ld.so.conf to point"
-          echo "*** to the installed location  Also, make sure you have run ldconfig if that"
-          echo "*** is required on your system"
-	  echo "***"
-          echo "*** If you have an old version installed, it is best to remove it, although"
-          echo "*** you may also be able to get things to work by modifying LD_LIBRARY_PATH" ],
-        [ echo "*** The test program failed to compile or link. See the file config.log for the"
-          echo "*** exact error that occurred. This usually means GTK+ is incorrectly installed."])
-          CFLAGS="$ac_save_CFLAGS"
-          LIBS="$ac_save_LIBS"
-       fi
-     fi
-     GTK_CFLAGS=""
-     GTK_LIBS=""
-     ifelse([$3], , :, [$3])
-  fi
-  AC_SUBST(GTK_CFLAGS)
-  AC_SUBST(GTK_LIBS)
-  rm -f conf.gtktest
-])
-
-dnl GTK_CHECK_BACKEND(BACKEND-NAME [, MINIMUM-VERSION [, ACTION-IF-FOUND [, ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND]]])
-dnl   Tests for BACKEND-NAME in the GTK targets list
-dnl
-AC_DEFUN([GTK_CHECK_BACKEND],
-[m4_warn([obsolete], [GTK_CHECK_BACKEND is deprecated, use PKG_CHECK_MODULES([GTK_X11], [gtk+-x11-3.0]) or similar instead])
-  pkg_config_args=ifelse([$1],,gtk+-3.0, gtk+-$1-3.0)
-  min_gtk_version=ifelse([$2],,3.0.0,$2)
-  pkg_config_args="$pkg_config_args >= $min_gtk_version"
-
-  AC_PATH_PROG(PKG_CONFIG, [pkg-config], [AC_MSG_ERROR([No pkg-config found])])
-
-  if $PKG_CONFIG $pkg_config_args ; then
-    target_found=yes
-  else
-    target_found=no
-  fi
-
-  if test "x$target_found" = "xno"; then
-    ifelse([$4],,[AC_MSG_ERROR([Backend $backend not found.])],[$4])
-  else
-    ifelse([$3],,[:],[$3])
-  fi
-])