take inspiration from nodejs/node#21371

Makefile

@@ -20,7 +20,12 @@ $(V8FILES):
 	ninja -C deps/v8/out.gn/x64.release v8_monolith
 
 out/config.json: configure
-	$(error Missing or stale $@, please run ./configure)
+	@if [ -x out/config.status ]; then \
+		./out/config.status; \
+	else \
+		echo Missing or stale $@, please run ./$<; \
+		exit 1; \
+	fi
 
 clean:
 	rm -rf out

configure

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 /* eslint-env node */
 /* eslint-disable prefer-destructuring */
 
-const { readFileSync, writeFileSync } = require('fs');
+const { readFileSync, writeFileSync, chmodSync } = require('fs');
 
 function snekparse(args) {
   if (typeof args === 'string') {
@@ -82,14 +82,21 @@ function snekparse(args) {
   return argv;
 }
 
-const argv = snekparse(process.argv);
+const pargv = process.argv.slice(2);
+const argv = snekparse(pargv);
 
 const config = {
   exposeBinding: argv['expose-binding'] || false,
   allowNativesSyntax: argv['allow-natives-syntax'] || false,
   exposePrivateSymbols: argv['expose-private-symbols'] || false,
 };
 
+writeFileSync('./out/config.status', `#!/bin/sh
+set -ex
+./configure ${pargv.map((a) => `'${a.replace(/'/g, "'\\''")}'`).join(' ')}
+`);
+chmodSync('./out/config.status', '775');
+
 const current = (() => {
   try {
     return readFileSync('./out/config.json', 'utf8');