diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 86b7e88..33c126f 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -255,6 +255,17 @@ for arch in sorted(os.listdir('compilers')):
     with open('compilers/%s' % arch) as f:
       for c in f.readlines():
         c = c.strip()
+        if env_cc := os.getenv('CC'):
+          c_as_list= c.split()
+          # check if the compiler we're testing has the name inside the last
+          # part of the CC env var
+          # i.e. gcc == x86_64-linux-unknown-gnu-gcc
+          # or gcc == gcc
+          if c_as_list[0] == env_cc.split("-")[-1]:
+            c_as_list[0] = env_cc
+          c = ' '.join(c_as_list)
+          log('patched command as %s' % c)
+
         cv = compilerversion(c)
         if cv == None:
           log('skipping %s compiler %s' % (arch,c))
diff --git a/scripts-build/checkinsns b/scripts-build/checkinsns
index 039a0c5..4e64c96 100755
--- a/scripts-build/checkinsns
+++ b/scripts-build/checkinsns
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import sys
 import subprocess
 import traceback
 
-objdump = os.getenv('CROSS','')+'objdump'
+objdump = os.getenv('OBJDUMP', os.getenv('CROSS','')+'objdump')
 
 host = sys.argv[1]
 
diff --git a/scripts-build/checknamespace b/scripts-build/checknamespace
index 2a599e4..d0ae563 100755
--- a/scripts-build/checknamespace
+++ b/scripts-build/checknamespace
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import os
 import sys
 import subprocess
 
-nm = os.getenv('CROSS','')+'nm'
+nm = os.getenv('NM', os.getenv('CROSS','')+'nm')
 
 topnamespace = sys.argv[1]
 
diff --git a/scripts-build/staticlib b/scripts-build/staticlib
index 7683233..0445bc3 100755
--- a/scripts-build/staticlib
+++ b/scripts-build/staticlib
@@ -3,6 +3,6 @@
 lib="$1"
 
 rm -f package/lib/"$lib".a
-ar cr package/lib/"$lib".a ofiles/*.o
-ranlib package/lib/"$lib".a || :
+${AR:-ar} cr package/lib/"$lib".a ofiles/*.o
+${RANLIB:-ranlib} package/lib/"$lib".a || :
 chmod 644 package/lib/"$lib".a