diff --git a/test/mpi/autogen.sh b/test/mpi/autogen.sh
index 106c2a5dafd..e6e8d768e1b 100755
--- a/test/mpi/autogen.sh
+++ b/test/mpi/autogen.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,18 @@ check_copy version.m4     ../../maint/version.m4
 check_copy confdb         ../../confdb
 check_copy dtpools/confdb ../../confdb
 
+# mtest_mpix.h is generated by mpich autogen, specifically, gen_binding_c.py.
+# It provides macros that replace upcoming MPI functions with MPIX prefix.
+# The tests using these new functions should not be included with
+# --enable-strictmpi, an option should be given when testing general MPI
+# implementations.
+#
+# Here we supply an empty stub when this is run outside mpich.
+#
+if test ! -e include/mtest_mpix.h ; then
+    touch include/mtest_mpix.h
+fi
+
 echo "Running autoreconf in dtpools"
 (cd dtpools && autoreconf -ivf)