diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 36fcf67..39612f3 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -143,6 +143,16 @@ firstcompiler = None
 with open('compilers/default') 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 default compiler %s' % c)
diff --git a/scripts-build/staticlib b/scripts-build/staticlib
index 7b2fc92..a6bbe41 100755
--- a/scripts-build/staticlib
+++ b/scripts-build/staticlib
@@ -4,6 +4,6 @@ lib="$1"
 shift
 
 rm -f package/lib/"$lib".a
-ar cr package/lib/"$lib".a "$@"
-ranlib package/lib/"$lib".a || :
+${AR:-ar} cr package/lib/"$lib".a "$@"
+${RANLIB:-ranlib} package/lib/"$lib".a || :
 chmod 644 package/lib/"$lib".a