diff --git a/utils/regtools/Makefile b/utils/regtools/Makefile
index 6ed827e257..5e3feafd01 100644
--- a/utils/regtools/Makefile
+++ b/utils/regtools/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 DEFINES=
-CC=gcc
-CXX=g++
-LD=g++
+CC?=gcc
+CXX?=g++
+LD?=g++
 CFLAGS=-g -std=c99 -Wall $(DEFINES) -Ilib
 CXXFLAGS=-g -Wall $(DEFINES) -Ilib
 LDFLAGS=-Llib -lsocdesc `xml2-config --libs`
diff --git a/utils/regtools/lib/Makefile b/utils/regtools/lib/Makefile
index ef8d4c0533..08021ef941 100644
--- a/utils/regtools/lib/Makefile
+++ b/utils/regtools/lib/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-CC=gcc
-CXX=g++
-AR=ar
+CC?=gcc
+CXX?=g++
+AR?=ar
 CFLAGS=-Wall -O2 `xml2-config --cflags` -std=c99 -g -fPIC
 CXXFLAGS=-Wall -O2 `xml2-config --cflags` -g -fPIC
 LIB=libsocdesc.a
@@ -20,4 +20,4 @@ $(LIB): $(OBJ)
 	$(AR) rcs $@ $^
 
 clean:
-	rm -rf $(OBJ) $(LIB)
\ No newline at end of file
+	rm -rf $(OBJ) $(LIB)