-extra_cflags = `pkg-config --cflags glib-2.0 gmime-2.4 talloc`
-extra_cxxflags = `xapian-config --cxxflags`
+extra_cflags := $(shell pkg-config --cflags glib-2.0 gmime-2.4 talloc)
+extra_cxxflags := $(shell xapian-config --cxxflags)
+
+emacs_lispdir := $(shell pkg-config emacs --variable sitepkglispdir)
+# Hard-code if this system doesn't have an emacs.pc file
+ifeq ($(emacs_lispdir),)
+ emacs_lispdir = $(prefix)/share/site-lisp
+endif
+
+all_deps = Makefile Makefile.local Makefile.config \
+ lib/Makefile lib/Makefile.local