diff --git a/Makefile-rules b/Makefile-rules
deleted file mode 100644
index 6c39f2d..0000000
--- a/Makefile-rules
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
-
-.PHONY: native
-native: ${DIST_NATIVE}/.built
-
-.PHONY: wasm
-wasm: ${DIST_WASM}/.built
-
-.PHONY: clean-wasm
-clean-wasm::
-	rm -rf ${BUILD_WASM} ${DIST_WASM}
-
-.PHONY: clean-native
-clean-native::
-	rm -rf ${BUILD_NATIVE} ${DIST_NATIVE}
-
-.PHONY: clean-build
-clean-build::
-	rm -rf ${BUILD} ${SRC}/zig-cache
-
-clean-node_modules::
-	rm -rf node_modules
-
-.PHONY: clean
-clean:: clean-wasm clean-native clean-node_modules
-	rm -rf ${BUILD} ${DIST} tsconfig.tsbuildinfo ${SRC}/zig-cache
-
-${TARBALL}:
-	mkdir -p ${UPSTREAM}
-	curl -L ${URL} -o ${TARBALL}
-
-# NOTE: these double colon rules can be nicely overridden, which is where additional patching goes.
-#       See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1644920/override-target-in-makefile-to-add-more-commands
-#
-${BUILD_NATIVE}/.build:: ${TARBALL}
-	rm -rf ${BUILD_NATIVE}
-	mkdir -p ${BUILD_NATIVE}
-	tar xf ${TARBALL} -C ${BUILD_NATIVE} --strip-components=1
-	touch ${BUILD_NATIVE}/.build
-
-${BUILD_WASM}/.build:: ${TARBALL}
-	rm -rf ${BUILD_WASM}
-	mkdir -p ${BUILD_WASM}
-	tar xf ${TARBALL} -C ${BUILD_WASM} --strip-components=1
-	touch ${BUILD_WASM}/.build
-
-node_modules:
-	cd ../node && make
-	npm install
-
diff --git a/Makefile-vars b/Makefile-vars
deleted file mode 100644
index 44a4b1b..0000000
--- a/Makefile-vars
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,56 +0,0 @@
-# This is a Makefile of common definitions that is used by other packages that
-# involve building upstream code from source.
-
-# The directory containing the package where the makefile is run, e.g., packages/bzip2
-CWD:=$(shell dirname $(realpath $(firstword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))
-
-# The directory containing all of the packages.
-PACKAGES = ${CWD}/..
-
-# Where the upstream sources are cached
-UPSTREAM = ${CWD}/../../upstream/sources
-
-# Binaries useful for building, e.g., node, zig, cowasm
-BIN = ${CWD}/../../bin
-
-
-
-# Include the BIN directory at front of path.
-# See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8941110/how-i-could-add-dir-to-path-in-makefile
-export PATH := $(BIN):$(PATH)
-export SHELL := env PATH='$(PATH)' /bin/bash
-
-# Where sources, e.g., patches, customizations, new code, etc., are stored for this build.
-SRC = ${CWD}/src
-
-# Temporary path where we do the build.  These files can always be deleted without impacting
-# the artifact in dist.
-BUILD = ${CWD}/build
-BUILD_NATIVE = ${BUILD}/native
-BUILD_WASM = ${BUILD}/wasm
-
-# Where we put the result of the build, e.g., --prefix=${DIST_WASM}
-DIST = ${CWD}/dist
-DIST_NATIVE = ${DIST}/native
-DIST_WASM = ${DIST}/wasm
-
-UNAME_S := $(shell uname -s)
-UNAME_M := $(shell uname -m)
-
-
-# This target below also works around a zig bug -- the native build fails
-# with "ld.lld: error: undefined symbol: fcntl64".
-# See https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/5882 and https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/9485
-# NOTE: we use musl instead of gnu.2.31, since musl works on CoCalc (a massive messy huge Linux
-# environment), wheras gnu.2.31 only worked on several minimal linux envs.  Plus it's pretty cool
-# that we can use musl and it works!
-
-ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Linux)
-    # On Linux we explicitly always build for musl
-    # See https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/12797
-	ZIG_NATIVE_CFLAGS="--target=$(UNAME_M)-linux-musl"
-	ZIG_NATIVE_CFLAGS_GNU="--target=$(UNAME_M)-linux-gnu.2.31"
-else
-    ZIG_NATIVE_CFLAGS=""
-    ZIG_NATIVE_CFLAGS_GNU=""
-endif
diff --git a/Makefile-vars-build b/Makefile-vars-build
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c3eb18e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile-vars-build
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# This is a bootstrap version of Makefile-vars, just for installing some binaries.
+
+CWD:=$(shell dirname $(realpath $(firstword $(MAKEFILE_LIST))))
+PACKAGES = ${CWD}/../../..
+UPSTREAM = ${PACKAGES}/../upstream/sources
+BIN = ${PACKAGES}/../bin
+BUILD = ${CWD}/build
+BUILD_NATIVE = ${BUILD}/native
+DIST = ${CWD}/dist
+DIST_NATIVE = ${DIST}/native
diff --git a/node/Makefile b/node/Makefile
index 0eff1cd..1eafc17 100644
--- a/node/Makefile
+++ b/node/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # for your architecture here, so that we can use it for
 # building everything else.
 
-include ../build/Makefile-vars
+include ../Makefile-vars-build
 
 # Find the latest version at https://nodejs.org/dist/latest/
 VERSION = 19.1.0
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ OS = $(shell uname -s  | sed s/Darwin/darwin/ | sed s/Linux/linux/)
 TARBALL = ${UPSTREAM}/node-v${VERSION}-${OS}-${ARCH}.tar.xz
 URL =  https://nodejs.org/dist/v${VERSION}/node-v${VERSION}-${OS}-${ARCH}.tar.xz
 
-include ../build/Makefile-rules
+include ../../Makefile-rules
 
 ${DIST_NATIVE}/.${VERSION}: ${TARBALL}
 	rm -rf ${DIST_NATIVE}
diff --git a/zig/Makefile b/zig/Makefile
index a70e29e..988419f 100644
--- a/zig/Makefile
+++ b/zig/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # for your architecture here, so that we can use it for
 # building everything else.
 
-include ../build/Makefile-vars
+include ../Makefile-vars-build
 
 # Find the latest version at https://ziglang.org/download/
 
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ TARBALL = ${UPSTREAM}/zig-${OS}-${ARCH}-${VERSION}.tar.xz
 
 all: ${DIST_NATIVE}/.${VERSION} ${BIN}/cowasm-cc ${BIN}/cowasm-c++ ${BIN}/cowasm-zig ${BIN}/zig
 
-include ../build/Makefile-rules
+include ../../Makefile-rules
 
 ${DIST_NATIVE}/.${VERSION}: ${TARBALL}
 	rm -rf ${DIST_NATIVE}