diff --git a/docs/CONTRIBUTORS b/docs/CONTRIBUTORS
index 92c0ec46c..09c1ae87b 100644
--- a/docs/CONTRIBUTORS
+++ b/docs/CONTRIBUTORS
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ Glen Gibb
 Gökçe Aydos
 Graham Rushton
 Guokai Chen
+Gus Smith
 Gustav Svensk
 Harald Heckmann
 Hennadii Chernyshchyk
diff --git a/include/verilated.mk.in b/include/verilated.mk.in
index 4f138288b..6b0bda50d 100644
--- a/include/verilated.mk.in
+++ b/include/verilated.mk.in
@@ -9,12 +9,12 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-3.0-only OR Artistic-2.0
 ######################################################################
 
-AR = @AR@
-CXX = @CXX@
-LINK = @CXX@
+AR ?= @AR@
+CXX ?= @CXX@
+LINK ?= @CXX@
 OBJCACHE ?= @OBJCACHE@
-PERL = @PERL@
-PYTHON3 = @PYTHON3@
+PERL ?= @PERL@
+PYTHON3 ?= @PYTHON3@
 
 CFG_WITH_CCWARN = @CFG_WITH_CCWARN@
 CFG_WITH_LONGTESTS = @CFG_WITH_LONGTESTS@