When trying to build git HEAD of xcb-util-cursor out-of-source, I get the following failure:

if gperf --includes --struct-type --language=ANSI-C --switch=1 shape_to_id.gperf >shape_to_id.ct; then \
  mv shape_to_id.ct shape_to_id.c; \
elif gperf --version >/dev/null 2>&1; then \
  rm shape_to_id.ct; \
  exit 1; \
elif test -f shape_to_id.c; then \
  rm shape_to_id.ct; \
  touch shape_to_id.c; \
else \
  rm shape_to_id.ct; \
  exit 1; \
fi
Cannot open input file 'shape_to_id.gperf'

...which means someone forgot to reference $(srcdir).