diff --git a/Makefile.common b/Makefile.common
index 4d9a247..3f06d46 100644
--- a/Makefile.common
+++ b/Makefile.common
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ autospec: pullrebase
 		echo "Specfile already exists and was not created by autospec.py! Aborting."; \
 		exit 1; \
 	fi
-	@printf 'PKG_NAME := %s\nURL = %s\n\n\ninclude ../common/Makefile.common\n' $(PKG_NAME) '$(firstword $(value NEWURL) $(value URL))' > Makefile
+	@printf 'PKG_NAME := %s\nURL = %s\nARCHIVES = %s\n\ninclude ../common/Makefile.common\n' $(PKG_NAME) '$(firstword $(value NEWURL) $(value URL))' '$(value ARCHIVES)' > Makefile
 	python3 $(TOPLVL)/projects/autospec/autospec/autospec.py -t . --integrity \
 		${NON_INTERACTIVE} --config "$(AUTOSPEC_CONF)" ${SKIP_GIT} \
 		$(firstword $(NEWURL) $(URL)) --name $(PKG_NAME) ${CLEANUP} \
diff --git a/Makefile.toplevel b/Makefile.toplevel
index 72968d8..ef6da46 100644
--- a/Makefile.toplevel
+++ b/Makefile.toplevel
@@ -189,14 +189,14 @@ provides:
 #help process. For more information about autospec, see the project page on Github https://github.com/clearlinux/autospec
 autospecnew:
 	@if [ -z $(NAME) ] || [ -z $(URL) ]; then \
-		echo "Please specify NAME and URL"; \
+		echo "Please specify NAME and URL. The ARCHIVES variable is optional."; \
 		exit 1; \
 	fi
 	@git clone $(PKG_BASE_URL)/$(NAME) $(TOPLVL)/packages/$(NAME) &> /dev/null || true
 	@if [ ! -d $(TOPLVL)/packages/$(NAME)/.git ]; then \
 		echo "no remote repository found, creating new package repository and running autospec"; \
 		mkdir -p $(TOPLVL)/packages/$(NAME); \
-		printf 'PKG_NAME := %s\nURL = %s\n\n\ninclude ../common/Makefile.common\n' $(NAME) '$(value URL)' > $(TOPLVL)/packages/$(NAME)/Makefile; \
+		printf 'PKG_NAME := %s\nURL = %s\nARCHIVES = %s\n\ninclude ../common/Makefile.common\n' $(NAME) '$(value URL)' '$(value ARCHIVES)' > $(TOPLVL)/packages/$(NAME)/Makefile; \
 		python3 $(TOPLVL)/projects/autospec/autospec/autospec.py --integrity -t packages/$(NAME) --config $(AUTOSPEC_CONF) $(URL) --name $(NAME); \
 		$(TOPLVL)/projects/common/checkblacklist.sh $(TOPLVL)/projects/common/blacklist $(TOPLVL)/packages/${NAME}/results/*.rpm; \
 	else \