diff --git a/libastro/Makefile b/libastro/Makefile
index 0a8ecb6..b24e827 100644
--- a/libastro/Makefile
+++ b/libastro/Makefile
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
 
 # compiler and flags
 
+AR = ar
+RANLIB = ranlib
+
 # gcc
 CC = gcc
 CFLAGS= -O2 -Wall
@@ -83,8 +86,8 @@ OBJS =			\
 	vsop87_data.o
 
 libastro.a: $(HS) $(OBJS)
-	ar rv $@ $(OBJS)
-	ranlib $@
+	$(AR) rv $@ $(OBJS)
+	$(RANLIB) $@
 
 libastro.so: $(HS) $(OBJS)
 	$(CC) -shared -o $@ $(OBJS)
diff --git a/libip/Makefile b/libip/Makefile
index 5c36ac8..e223dca 100644
--- a/libip/Makefile
+++ b/libip/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 # Makefile for image processing routines, libip.
 # (C) 2001 Elwood Charles Downey
 
+AR = ar
+RANLIB = ranlib
+
 # gcc
 CC = gcc
 CFLAGS= -I../libastro -O2 -Wall
@@ -36,11 +39,11 @@ OBJS =	\
 HS = ip.h fsmatch.h
 
 libip.a: $(HS)	$(OBJS)
-	ar rv $@ $(OBJS)
-	ranlib $@
+	$(AR) rv $@ $(OBJS)
+	$(RANLIB) $@
 
 libip.so:    $(OBJS)
-	gcc -shared -o $@ $(OBJS)
+	$(CC) -shared -o $@ $(OBJS)
 
 clobber:
 	rm -f *.o libip.a
diff --git a/libjpegd/Makefile b/libjpegd/Makefile
index 46ea040..7562fc5 100644
--- a/libjpegd/Makefile
+++ b/libjpegd/Makefile
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 
 # compiler and flags
 
+AR = ar
+RANLIB = ranlib
+
 # gcc
 CC = gcc
 CFLAGS= -O2 -Wall
@@ -62,8 +65,8 @@ OBJS = \
 	jutils.o
 
 libjpegd.a: $(HS) $(OBJS)
-	ar r $@ $(OBJS)
-	ranlib $@
+	$(AR) r $@ $(OBJS)
+	$(RANLIB) $@
 
 clobber:
 	touch x.o x.a
diff --git a/liblilxml/Makefile b/liblilxml/Makefile
index 2e73761..7f3f2c3 100644
--- a/liblilxml/Makefile
+++ b/liblilxml/Makefile
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@
 
 # compiler and flags
 
+AR = ar
+RANLIB = ranlib
+
 # gcc
 CC = gcc
 CFLAGS= -O2 -Wall
@@ -27,8 +30,8 @@ HS = lilxml.h
 OBJS = lilxml.o base64.o
 
 liblilxml.a: $(HS) $(OBJS)
-	ar r $@ $(OBJS)
-	ranlib $@
+	$(AR) r $@ $(OBJS)
+	$(RANLIB) $@
 
 liltest: liltest.o liblilxml.a
 	$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o liltest liltest.o liblilxml.a
diff --git a/libpng/Makefile b/libpng/Makefile
index 5f332cc..6217f2f 100644
--- a/libpng/Makefile
+++ b/libpng/Makefile
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ ZLIBLIB = ../libz
 # Compiler, linker, lib and other tools
 CC = gcc
 LD = $(CC)
-AR = ar rcs
+AR = ar
 RANLIB = ranlib
 RM = rm -f
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ OBJS = png$(O) pngerror$(O) pngget$(O) pngmem$(O) pngpread$(O) \
 all: libpng$(A)
 
 libpng$(A): $(OBJS)
-	$(AR) $@ $(OBJS)
+	$(AR) rcs $@ $(OBJS)
 	$(RANLIB) $@
 
 clean:
diff --git a/libz/Makefile b/libz/Makefile
index 773f3ed..0fc73c0 100644
--- a/libz/Makefile
+++ b/libz/Makefile
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+AR = ar
+RANLIB = ranlib
+
+CC = cc
 CLDFLAGS =
 CFLAGS = $(CLDFLAGS) -Wall -O2
 LDFLAGS =
@@ -17,11 +21,11 @@ OBJS =	adler32.o	\
 	inffast.o
 
 libz.a: $(OBJS)
-	ar rc libz.a $(OBJS)
-	-ranlib libz.a
+	$(AR) rc libz.a $(OBJS)
+	$(RANLIB) libz.a
 
 testzlib: testzlib.o libz.a
-	cc $(LDFLAGS) -o testzlib testzlib.o libz.a
+	$(CC) $(LDFLAGS) -o testzlib testzlib.o libz.a
 
 clean:
 	rm -f *.o *.a testzlib