diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 124fe8d..c924000 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ LUADIR = external/lua
 CC       = ${_CC}
 CFLAGS   = ${_CFLAGS} -I${LUADIR} -pedantic -Wall -Wextra
 CPPFLAGS = -D_DEFAULT_SOURCE
-LDFLAGS  = -lm ${_LDFLAGS}
+LDFLAGS  = ${_LDFLAGS}
 
 OBJS = callisto.o lcl.o lenviron.o lextra.o lfs.o ljson.o \
        lprocess.o util.o
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index c5b266c..be4b402 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -5,7 +5,10 @@
 set -e
 
 mkf=config.mk
-cflags='-std=c99' # set here to apply to all subtrees
+# these also apply to all libraries in external/
+cflags='-std=c99'
+cppflags='-DLUA_USE_POSIX'
+ldflags='-lm'
 
 # utility functions
 
@@ -57,7 +60,7 @@ gen_CFLAGS () {
 ## flags used in the linking step
 gen_LDFLAGS () {
 	if pkg-config readline; then
-		ldflags="$(pkg-config --libs readline)"
+		ldflags="$ldflags $(pkg-config --libs readline)"
 	fi
 	if present ld.lld; then
 		ldflags="$ldflags -fuse-ld=lld"
@@ -105,11 +108,13 @@ gen_LDFLAGS
 
 printf '# generated by configure
 
-_CC      = %s
-_CFLAGS  = %s
-_LDFLAGS =%s
-'             \
-	"$cc"     \
-	"$cflags" \
-	"$ldflags"\
+_CC       = %s
+_CFLAGS   = %s
+_CPPFLAGS = %s
+_LDFLAGS  =%s
+'              \
+	"$cc"      \
+	"$cflags"  \
+	"$cppflags"\
+	"$ldflags" \
 		>"$mkf"