diff --git a/Makefile.config.in b/Makefile.config.in
index e0263c2b1..0bfa5e20c 100644
--- a/Makefile.config.in
+++ b/Makefile.config.in
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ PLATFORM = $(shell uname)
 
 ABSOLUTE_ROOT_DIR = $(shell cd $(ROOT_DIR) && pwd)
 
+FCP_DIR = $(ABSOLUTE_ROOT_DIR)/facebook-clang-plugins
 INFER_DIR = $(ABSOLUTE_ROOT_DIR)/infer
 DEPENDENCIES_DIR = $(ABSOLUTE_ROOT_DIR)/dependencies
 FCP_DIR = $(ABSOLUTE_ROOT_DIR)/facebook-clang-plugins
diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index 356c87c9c..7fe3dc64e 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -14,10 +14,35 @@ all: clang java
 java:
 	$(MAKE) -C $(INFER_DIR) java
 
-clang:
+clang_setup:
+	export CC="@CC@" CFLAGS="@CFLAGS@"; \
+	export CXX="@CXX@" CXXFLAGS="@CXXFLAGS@"; \
+	export CPP="@CPP@" LDFLAGS="@LDFLAGS@" LIBS="@LIBS@"; \
+	$(FCP_DIR)/clang/setup.sh
+
+clang_plugin: clang_setup
+	$(MAKE) -C $(FCP_DIR)/libtooling all \
+	  CC=@CC@ CXX=@CXX@ \
+	  CXX="@CXX@" CXXFLAGS="@CXXFLAGS@" \
+	  CPP="@CPP@" LDFLAGS="@LDFLAGS@" LIBS="@LIBS@" \
+	  LOCAL_CLANG=@CLANG_PREFIX@/bin/clang \
+	  CLANG_PREFIX=@CLANG_PREFIX@ \
+	  CLANG_INCLUDES=@CLANG_INCLUDES@
+	$(MAKE) -C $(FCP_DIR)/clang-ocaml all \
+          build/clang_ast_proj.ml build/clang_ast_proj.mli \
+	  CC=@CC@ CXX=@CXX@ \
+	  CXX="@CXX@" CXXFLAGS="@CXXFLAGS@" \
+	  CPP="@CPP@" LDFLAGS="@LDFLAGS@" LIBS="@LIBS@" \
+	  LOCAL_CLANG=@CLANG_PREFIX@/bin/clang \
+	  CLANG_PREFIX=@CLANG_PREFIX@ \
+	  CLANG_INCLUDES=@CLANG_INCLUDES@
+
+clang: clang_plugin
 	$(MAKE) -C $(INFER_DIR) clang
 
 clean:
+	$(MAKE) -C $(FCP_DIR) clean
+	$(MAKE) -C $(FCP_DIR)/clang-ocaml clean
 	$(MAKE) -C $(INFER_DIR) clean
 
-.PHONY: all clean clang java
+.PHONY: all clean clang clang_plugin clang_setup java
diff --git a/build-infer.sh b/build-infer.sh
index 5bb5caede..29766bcd7 100755
--- a/build-infer.sh
+++ b/build-infer.sh
@@ -113,40 +113,35 @@ if [ "$BUILD_JAVA" = "1" ]; then
 fi
 if [ "$BUILD_CLANG" = "1" ]; then
   TARGETS+=" clang"
-  if [ ! -f .release ]; then
-    if ! facebook-clang-plugins/clang/setup.sh --only-check-install; then
-      echo ""
-      echo "  Warning: you are not using a release of Infer. The C and"
-      echo "  Objective-C analyses require a custom clang to be compiled"
-      echo "  now. This step takes ~30-60 minutes, possibly more."
-      echo ""
-      echo "  To speed this along, you are encouraged to use a release of"
-      echo "  Infer instead:"
-      echo ""
-      echo "  http://fbinfer.com/docs/getting-started.html"
-      echo ""
-      echo "  If you are only interested in analyzing Java programs, simply"
-      echo "  run this script with only the \"java\" argument:"
-      echo ""
-      echo "  $0 java"
-      echo ""
-
-      confirm="n"
-      printf "Are you sure you want to compile clang? (y/N) "
-      if [ "$INTERACTIVE" = "no" ]; then
-          confirm="y"
-          echo "$confirm"
-      else
-          read confirm
-      fi
-
-      if [ "x$confirm" != "xy" ]; then
-          exit 0
-      fi
-
-      ./facebook-clang-plugins/clang/setup.sh
+  if ! facebook-clang-plugins/clang/setup.sh --only-check-install; then
+    echo ""
+    echo "  Warning: you are not using a release of Infer. The C and"
+    echo "  Objective-C analyses require a custom clang to be compiled"
+    echo "  now. This step takes ~30-60 minutes, possibly more."
+    echo ""
+    echo "  To speed this along, you are encouraged to use a release of"
+    echo "  Infer instead:"
+    echo ""
+    echo "  http://fbinfer.com/docs/getting-started.html"
+    echo ""
+    echo "  If you are only interested in analyzing Java programs, simply"
+    echo "  run this script with only the \"java\" argument:"
+    echo ""
+    echo "  $0 java"
+    echo ""
+
+    confirm="n"
+    printf "Are you sure you want to compile clang? (y/N) "
+    if [ "$INTERACTIVE" = "no" ]; then
+        confirm="y"
+        echo "$confirm"
+    else
+        read confirm
+    fi
+
+    if [ "x$confirm" != "xy" ]; then
+        exit 0
     fi
-    ./compile-fcp.sh
   fi
 fi
 
diff --git a/compile-fcp.sh b/compile-fcp.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index a311983eb..000000000
--- a/compile-fcp.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,53 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-# Copyright (c) 2015 - present Facebook, Inc.
-# All rights reserved.
-#
-# This source code is licensed under the BSD style license found in the
-# LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree. An additional grant
-# of patent rights can be found in the PATENTS file in the same directory.
-
-set -e
-set -x
-
-# This script installs the facebook-clang-plugins
-
-INFER_ROOT="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
-PLUGIN_DIR="$INFER_ROOT/facebook-clang-plugins"
-CLANG_EXEC="$PLUGIN_DIR/clang/bin/clang"
-
-# check if clang is available
-if [ ! -f $CLANG_EXEC ]; then
-    echo "Clang has not been found in $CLANG_EXEC" && exit 1
-fi
-
-# install facebook-clang-plugins
-pushd "$PLUGIN_DIR"
-# prepare flags for the compilation on the Linux platform
-platform="$(uname)"
-if [ "$platform" == 'Linux' ]; then
-    export SDKPATH=""
-    export PATH="$PLUGIN_DIR/clang/bin:$PATH"
-    [ -z "$CC" ] && export CC="$PLUGIN_DIR/clang/bin/clang"
-    make_vars+=" CC=$CC"
-    [ -z "$CXX" ] && export CXX="$PLUGIN_DIR/clang/bin/clang++"
-    make_vars+=" CXX=$CXX"
-    [ -z "$CLANG_PREFIX" ] && export CLANG_PREFIX="$PLUGIN_DIR/clang"
-    [ -z "$LLVM_INCLUDES" ] && export LLVM_INCLUDES="$PLUGIN_DIR/clang/include"
-    [ -z "$CLANG_INCLUDES" ] && export CLANG_INCLUDES="$LLVM_INCLUDES $CLANG_PREFIX/include"
-fi
-
-# compile
-make clean
-make -C clang-ocaml clean
-make $make_vars
-make -C clang-ocaml all build/clang_ast_proj.ml build/clang_ast_proj.mli
-popd
-
-# check YojsonASTExporter works with clang
-echo "int main() { return 0; }" | \
-    $CLANG_EXEC -o /dev/null -x c \
-        -Xclang -load -Xclang $PLUGIN_DIR/libtooling/build/FacebookClangPlugin.dylib \
-        -Xclang -plugin -Xclang BiniouASTExporter -c - > /dev/null \
-|| { echo "$CLANG_EXEC and the facebook-clang-plugins are not working.";
-     echo "Check you're using the right revision of clang, then retry"; exit 1; }
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 399045589..635e83348 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -15,12 +15,12 @@ AC_PREREQ([2.63])
 AC_INIT([Infer],[0.4.0],[https://github.com/facebook/infer/issues/])
 
 AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([infer/src/backend/sil.ml])
-#AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h])
 
-# Checks for programs.
-AC_PROG_CXX
+# prefer clang over gcc because the plugins makes use of
+# clang-specific #pragma's
+AC_PROG_CC(clang gcc)
+AC_PROG_CXX(clang++ g++)
 AC_PROG_AWK
-AC_PROG_CC
 AC_PROG_CPP
 AC_PROG_INSTALL
 AC_PROG_LN_S
@@ -68,6 +68,17 @@ AC_SUBST([ATDGEN])
 AC_CHECK_TOOL([XCODE_SELECT], [xcode-select], [no])
 AC_SUBST([XCODE_SELECT])
 
+# to compile the facebook-clang-plugins
+AC_ARG_VAR([CLANG_PREFIX], [directory where clang is installed (defaults=$PWD/facebook-clang-plugins/clang)])
+AS_IF([test "x$CLANG_PREFIX" = "x"], [
+  CLANG_PREFIX="$(pwd)/facebook-clang-plugins/clang"
+])
+
+AC_ARG_VAR([CLANG_INCLUDES], [clang headers directories (defaults=$CLANG_PREFIX/include)])
+AS_IF([test "x$CLANG_INCLUDES" = "x"], [
+  CLANG_INCLUDES="$CLANG_PREFIX/include"
+])
+
 # Checks for header files.
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS([fcntl.h inttypes.h limits.h locale.h malloc.h stddef.h stdint.h stdlib.h string.h sys/mount.h sys/param.h sys/socket.h sys/statfs.h sys/time.h unistd.h wchar.h wctype.h])