diff --git a/meta/recipes-devtools/binutils/binutils.inc b/meta/recipes-devtools/binutils/binutils.inc
index ff64882d14..1e592962ee 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-devtools/binutils/binutils.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-devtools/binutils/binutils.inc
@@ -76,9 +76,9 @@ export RANLIB_FOR_TARGET = "${TARGET_PREFIX}ranlib"
 export CC_FOR_HOST = "${CCACHE}${HOST_PREFIX}gcc ${HOST_CC_ARCH}"
 export CXX_FOR_HOST = "${CCACHE}${HOST_PREFIX}gcc ${HOST_CC_ARCH}"
 
+# autotools.bbclass sets the _FOR_BUILD variables, but for some reason we need
+# to unset LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
 export CC_FOR_BUILD = "LD_LIBRARY_PATH= ${BUILD_CC}"
-export CPP_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CPP}"
-export CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CFLAGS}"
 
 MULTIARCH := "${@bb.utils.contains("DISTRO_FEATURES", "multiarch", "yes", "no", d)}"
 do_configure[vardeps] += "MULTIARCH"
diff --git a/meta/recipes-devtools/rpm/rpm_5.4.9.bb b/meta/recipes-devtools/rpm/rpm_5.4.9.bb
index 3268160d86..072128403a 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-devtools/rpm/rpm_5.4.9.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-devtools/rpm/rpm_5.4.9.bb
@@ -350,7 +350,6 @@ do_configure() {
 	    -e 's/pkg-config uuid/pkg-config ossp-uuid/g' -i configure
 
 	export varprefix=${localstatedir}
-	export CC_FOR_BUILD="${BUILD_CC}"
 	oe_runconf
 }
 
diff --git a/meta/recipes-extended/bash/bash.inc b/meta/recipes-extended/bash/bash.inc
index ae4b681000..f1de931e82 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-extended/bash/bash.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-extended/bash/bash.inc
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ inherit autotools gettext update-alternatives
 PARALLEL_MAKE = ""
 
 EXTRA_OECONF = "--enable-job-control"
-export CC_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CC}"
 
 ALTERNATIVE_${PN} = "sh"
 ALTERNATIVE_LINK_NAME[sh] = "${base_bindir}/sh"
diff --git a/meta/recipes-gnome/gnome/metacity_2.30.3.bb b/meta/recipes-gnome/gnome/metacity_2.30.3.bb
index 3524f0e8d7..5b996d2297 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-gnome/gnome/metacity_2.30.3.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-gnome/gnome/metacity_2.30.3.bb
@@ -23,9 +23,8 @@ EXTRA_OECONF += "--disable-verbose \
 do_configure_prepend() {
 	sed -i -e 's:$ZENITY:$NOZENITY:g' -e 's:-Werror::g' ${S}/configure.in
 }
-export CC_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CC}"
-export CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CFLAGS} -I${STAGING_LIBDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0/include -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0 -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0/include -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}"
-export LDFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_LDFLAGS} -L${STAGING_LIBDIR_NATIVE} -lglib-2.0"
+CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD += "-I${STAGING_LIBDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0/include -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0 -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0/include -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}"
+LDFLAGS_FOR_BUILD += "-L${STAGING_LIBDIR_NATIVE} -lglib-2.0"
 
 FILES_${PN} += "${datadir}/themes ${datadir}/gnome-control-center ${datadir}/gnome"
 
diff --git a/meta/recipes-graphics/mutter/mutter.inc b/meta/recipes-graphics/mutter/mutter.inc
index da78827ac0..942349f95b 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-graphics/mutter/mutter.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-graphics/mutter/mutter.inc
@@ -20,9 +20,8 @@ EXTRA_OECONF += "--disable-verbose	\
 FILES_${PN} += "${datadir}/themes ${libdir}/mutter/plugins/*.so ${datadir}/gnome/wm-properties/"
 FILES_${PN}-dbg += "${libdir}/mutter/plugins/.debug/*"
 
-export CC_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CC}"
-export CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CFLAGS} -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0 -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0/include"
-export LDFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_LDFLAGS} -L${STAGING_LIBDIR_NATIVE} -lglib-2.0"
+CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD += "-I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0 -I${STAGING_INCDIR_NATIVE}/glib-2.0/include"
+LDFLAGS_FOR_BUILD += "-L${STAGING_LIBDIR_NATIVE} -lglib-2.0"
 
 do_configure_prepend () {
         echo "EXTRA_DIST=" > ${S}/gnome-doc-utils.make
diff --git a/meta/recipes-graphics/xorg-lib/libx11.inc b/meta/recipes-graphics/xorg-lib/libx11.inc
index 71e74f77dc..e0fce3eba2 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-graphics/xorg-lib/libx11.inc
+++ b/meta/recipes-graphics/xorg-lib/libx11.inc
@@ -30,12 +30,8 @@ EXTRA_OEMAKE += 'CWARNFLAGS=""'
 PACKAGECONFIG ??= ""
 PACKAGECONFIG[xcms] = "--enable-xcms,--disable-xcms"
 
-# src/util/makekeys needs to be compiled natively, so tell it what compiler to
-# use.
-export CC_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CC}"
-export CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CFLAGS} -D_GNU_SOURCE"
-export CPPFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CPPFLAGS}"
-export LDFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_LDFLAGS}"
+# src/util/makekeys is built natively but needs -D_GNU_SOURCE defined.
+CPPFLAGS_FOR_BUILD += "-D_GNU_SOURCE"
 
 PACKAGES =+ "${PN}-xcb"
 
diff --git a/meta/recipes-kernel/systemtap/systemtap_git.bb b/meta/recipes-kernel/systemtap/systemtap_git.bb
index 9e88ee979d..a490a2ea56 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-kernel/systemtap/systemtap_git.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-kernel/systemtap/systemtap_git.bb
@@ -8,10 +8,6 @@ DEPENDS_class-nativesdk = "nativesdk-elfutils nativesdk-sqlite3 nativesdk-gettex
 
 PR = "r0"
 
-export CC_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CC}"
-export CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CFLAGS}"
-export LDFLAGS_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_LDFLAGS}"
-
 EXTRA_OECONF += "--with-libelf=${STAGING_DIR_TARGET} --without-rpm \
             --without-nss --without-avahi \
             --disable-server --disable-grapher "
diff --git a/meta/recipes-support/gmp/gmp_4.2.1.bb b/meta/recipes-support/gmp/gmp_4.2.1.bb
index 1f86a65e2a..49ee59b7dc 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-support/gmp/gmp_4.2.1.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-support/gmp/gmp_4.2.1.bb
@@ -16,6 +16,4 @@ SRC_URI = "${GNU_MIRROR}/gmp/${BP}.tar.bz2 \
 SRC_URI[md5sum] = "091c56e0e1cca6b09b17b69d47ef18e3"
 SRC_URI[sha256sum] = "d07ffcb37eecec35c5ec72516d10b35fdf6e6fef1fcf1dcd37e30b8cbf8bf941"
 
-export CC_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CC}"
-
 inherit autotools
diff --git a/meta/recipes-support/gmp/gmp_5.0.5.bb b/meta/recipes-support/gmp/gmp_5.0.5.bb
index 20588684be..d91340ce92 100644
--- a/meta/recipes-support/gmp/gmp_5.0.5.bb
+++ b/meta/recipes-support/gmp/gmp_5.0.5.bb
@@ -8,7 +8,5 @@ SRC_URI_append = " file://use-includedir.patch \
                    file://gmp_fix_for_automake-1.12.patch \
                    "
 
-export CC_FOR_BUILD = "${BUILD_CC}"
-
 SRC_URI[md5sum] = "041487d25e9c230b0c42b106361055fe"
 SRC_URI[sha256sum] = "1f588aaccc41bb9aed946f9fe38521c26d8b290d003c5df807f65690f2aadec9"