-[ -z "$OPTIMIZE" ] && OPTIMIZE="-Os -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -Wl,--gc-sections"
-[ -z "$CC" ] && CC="${CROSS_COMPILE}gcc"
-[ -z "$STRIP" ] && STRIP="${CROSS_COMPILE}strip"
-[ -z "$HOSTCC" ] && HOSTCC=gcc
+[ -z "$OPTIMIZE" ] && OPTIMIZE="-Os -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-asynchronous-unwind-tables -fno-strict-aliasing"
+
+# We accept LDFLAGS, but by default don't have anything in it
+[ -z "$LDOPTIMIZE" ] && LDOPTIMIZE="-Wl,--gc-sections"
+
+# The makefile provides defaults for these, so this only gets used if
+# you call scripts/make.sh and friends directly.
+
+[ -z "$CC" ] && CC=cc
+
+# If HOSTCC needs CFLAGS or LDFLAGS, just add them to the variable
+# ala HOSTCC="blah-cc --static"
+[ -z "$HOSTCC" ] && HOSTCC=cc