diff --git a/src/configure b/src/configure
index a1f403f..472fa10 100755
--- a/src/configure
+++ b/src/configure
@@ -5,9 +5,15 @@ if test ! -f "configure-do" ; then
 	(cd autoconf;make)
 fi
 
-# some systems still expect you to manually add /usr/local.. c'mon!
-export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include"
-export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib"
+# some systems put essential things into /usr/local, then
+# don't instruct gcc to automatically look in there.
+# result: inconsistent behaviour, broken user expectation.
+if test "x$CPPFLAGS" = "x"; then
+    export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/include"
+fi
+if test "x$LDFLAGS" = "x"; then
+    export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib"
+fi
 
 # then run it with psyced defaults
 settings/psyced $*
diff --git a/src/version.sh b/src/version.sh
index 532dcec..4cf9af6 100644
--- a/src/version.sh
+++ b/src/version.sh
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ version_longtype="stable"
 # A timestamp, to be used by bumpversion and other scripts.
 # It can be used, for example, to 'touch' this file on every build, thus
 # forcing revision control systems to add it on every checkin automatically.
-version_stamp="Wed Aug 10 17:23:36 CEST 2016"
+version_stamp="Fri Aug 12 11:57:13 CEST 2016"
 
 # Okay, LDMUD is using 3.x.x so to avoid conflicts let's just use 4.x.x
 version_major=4