diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index d414ca3d9b..756790d099 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ LDFLAGS_PTHREAD ?= @LDFLAGS_PTHREAD@
 LDFLAGS_SHOBJ ?= @SHOBJ_LDFLAGS@
 ENABLE_SHARED ?= @ENABLE_SHARED@
 HAVE_WASI_SDK ?= @HAVE_WASI_SDK@
-AR ?= @AR@
-CC ?= @CC@
+AR = @AR@
+CC = @CC@
 
 # C Compiler and options for use in building executables that
 # will run on the platform that is doing the build.
@@ -42,11 +42,11 @@ BCC = @BUILD_CC@ @BUILD_CFLAGS@
 # are provide so that these aspects of the build process can be changed
 # on the "make" command-line.  Ex:  "make CC=clang CFLAGS=-fsanitize=undefined"
 #
-CFLAGS ?= @CFLAGS@ @SH_CFLAGS@
-CPPFLAGS ?= @CPPFLAGS@
+CFLAGS = @CFLAGS@ @SH_CFLAGS@
+CPPFLAGS = @CPPFLAGS@
 # CFLAGS_stdio3 ==> for sqlite3_stdio.h
 CFLAGS_stdio3 := -I$(TOP)/ext/misc
-TCC = $(CC) $(CFLAGS)
+TCC ?= $(CC) $(CFLAGS)
 
 # Define -DNDEBUG to compile without debugging (i.e., for production usage)
 # Omitting the define will cause extra debugging code to be inserted and
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ TLIBS = $(LIBS)
 JIMSH = @srcdir@/jimsh
 CFLAGS_JIMSH ?= @CFLAGS_JIMSH@
 $(JIMSH): $(TOP)/autosetup/jimsh0.c
-	$(BCC) -o $(JIMSH) $(CFLAGS_JIMSH) $<
+	$(BCC) -o $(JIMSH) $(CFLAGS_JIMSH) $(TOP)/autosetup/jimsh0.c
 
 # BTCLSH is the tclsh-compatible app used for running various code
 # generators and other in-tree tools, as opposed to the TCL-based
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ fiddle: sqlite3.c shell.c
 #
 ./custom.rws: ./tool/custom.txt
 	@echo 'Updating custom dictionary from tool/custom.txt'
-	aspell --lang=en create master ./custom.rws < $<
+	aspell --lang=en create master ./custom.rws < ./tool/custom.txt
 # Note that jimsh does not work here:
 # https://github.com/msteveb/jimtcl/issues/319
 misspell: ./custom.rws has_tclsh84
diff --git a/auto.def b/auto.def
index c93aceef49..071d95c66d 100644
--- a/auto.def
+++ b/auto.def
@@ -345,17 +345,21 @@ hwaci-if-opt-truthy with-debug {
 #    infrastructure. This must only be 1 for environments where
 #    tclConfig.sh can be found.
 #
-#  - TCLSH_CMD is the path to the canonical tclsh. It never refers to
-#    jimtcl.
+#  - TCLSH_CMD is the path to the canonical tclsh or "". It never
+#    refers to jimtcl.
 #
 #  - TCL_CONFIG_SH is the path to tclConfig.sh or "".
 #
 #  - TCLLIBDIR is the dir to which libtclsqlite3 gets installed.
 #
-#  - TCLLIB_RPATH = the -rpath flag specific to libtclsqlite3.
+#  - TCLLIB_RPATH = the -rpath flag specific to libtclsqlite3, which
+#    will usually differ from the rpath used by the rest of the lib.
 #
 #  - BTCLSH = the path to the tcl interpreter used for in-tree code
-#    generation.  It may be jimtcl or the canonical tclsh.
+#    generation.  It may be jimtcl or the canonical tclsh but may not
+#    be empty - this tree requires TCL to generated numerous
+#    components.
+#
 define HAVE_TCL 0
 define TCLSH_CMD {exit 1}
 proc hwaci-check-tcl {} {
@@ -551,7 +555,7 @@ if {[cc-check-functions realpath]} {
   set cgtcl [get-define TCLSH_CMD]
   define BTCLSH "\$(TCLSH_CMD)"
 }
-puts "TCL for code generation: $cgtcl"
+msg-result "TCL for code generation: $cgtcl"
 unset cgtcl
 
 # /TCL
@@ -559,7 +563,7 @@ unset cgtcl
 
 ########################################################################
 # Some of the fuzzer bits require clang
-define BIN_CLANG [hwaci-first-bin-of clang-6.0 clang]
+define BIN_CLANG [hwaci-first-bin-of clang-18]
 
 
 ########################################################################
diff --git a/autosetup/hwaci-common.tcl b/autosetup/hwaci-common.tcl
index 35ba1b3819..532bc465b8 100644
--- a/autosetup/hwaci-common.tcl
+++ b/autosetup/hwaci-common.tcl
@@ -132,10 +132,18 @@ proc hwaci-bin-define {binName {defName {}}} {
 # Each argument is passed to cc-path-progs. If that function returns
 # true, the full path to that binary is returned. If no matches are
 # found, "" is returned.
+#
+# Despite using cc-path-progs to do the search, this function clears
+# any define'd name that function stores for the result (because the
+# caller has no sensible way of knowing which result it was unless
+# they pass only a single argument).
 proc hwaci-first-bin-of {args} {
   foreach b $args {
     if {[cc-path-progs $b]} {
-      return [get-define [string toupper $b]]
+      set u [string toupper $b]
+      set x [get-define $u]
+      undefine $u
+      return $x
     }
   }
   return ""
@@ -144,10 +152,13 @@ proc hwaci-first-bin-of {args} {
 ########################################################################
 # Looks for `bash` binary and dies if not found. On success, defines
 # BIN_BASH to the full path to bash and returns that value.
+#
+# TODO: move this out of this file and back into the 1 or 2 downstream
+# trees which use it.
 proc hwaci-require-bash {} {
   set bash [hwaci-bin-define bash]
   if {"" eq $bash} {
-    user-error "Our Makefiles require the bash shell."
+    user-error "Cannot find required bash shell"
   }
   return $bash
 }
diff --git a/main.mk b/main.mk
index 848b859a22..5d529e741a 100644
--- a/main.mk
+++ b/main.mk
@@ -35,8 +35,9 @@
 ################################################################################
 
 #
-# Ideally these all come from the calling makefile, but we can provide some
-# sane defaults for many of them...
+# Ideally these all come from the calling makefile, but we can provide
+# some sane defaults for many of them, where "sane" essentially means
+# "should suffice for conventional Unix-style OSes"...
 #
 prefix ?= /usr/local
 exec_prefix ?= $(prefix)
@@ -44,10 +45,20 @@ libdir ?= $(prefix)/lib
 pkgconfigdir ?= $(libdir)/pkgconfig
 bindir ?= $(prefix)/bin
 includedir ?= $(prefix)/include
-USE_AMALGAMATION ?= 2
+
+USE_AMALGAMATION ?= 1
 AMALGAMATION_LINE_MACROS ?= --linemacros=0
 INSTALL ?= install
 
+BCC ?= $(CC)
+TCC ?= $(BCC)
+BEXE ?=
+TEXE ?=
+BDLL ?= .so
+TDLL ?= .so
+BLIB ?= .lib
+TLIB ?= .lib
+
 LDFLAGS_ZLIB ?= -lz
 LDFLAGS_MATH ?= -lm
 LDFLAGS_RPATH ?= -Wl,-rpath -Wl,$(prefix)/lib
diff --git a/manifest b/manifest
index d31f53fa5b..57deec006a 100644
--- a/manifest
+++ b/manifest
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
-C Move\smost\sof\sthe\smakefile\scode\sinto\sthe\sstatic\smain.mk.
-D 2024-10-19T20:26:17.451
+C More\sbuild\scleanups\sand\sget\sit\sworking\swith\sBSD\smake\s(which\sapparently\sdoes\snot\ssupport\s$<\sand\sbehaves\sslightly\sdifferently\sthan\sgmake\swith\sX?=Y).
+D 2024-10-19T20:53:46.370
 F .fossil-settings/empty-dirs dbb81e8fc0401ac46a1491ab34a7f2c7c0452f2f06b54ebb845d024ca8283ef1
 F .fossil-settings/ignore-glob 35175cdfcf539b2318cb04a9901442804be81cd677d8b889fcc9149c21f239ea
 F LICENSE.md df5091916dbb40e6e9686186587125e1b2ff51f022cc334e886c19a0e9982724
-F Makefile.in 1167ba2d57c63bbcbf96e919b6783665f751cc04e4b75985ed67f2a59b8074e6
+F Makefile.in 6df46358ff2db2a88d18f8d827513d87a60525d75e3156a32220bf6f23344a03
 F Makefile.linux-gcc f3842a0b1efbfbb74ac0ef60e56b301836d05b4d867d014f714fa750048f1ab6
 F Makefile.msc 58b69eda1faad5d475092b8aeffab9156ee4901a82db089b166607f2ec907ee4
 F README.md c3c0f19532ce28f6297a71870f3c7b424729f0e6d9ab889616d3587dd2332159
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ F art/icon-80x90.gif 65509ce3e5f86a9cd64fe7fca2d23954199f31fe44c1e09e208c80fb83d
 F art/sqlite370.eps aa97a671332b432a54e1d74ff5e8775be34200c2
 F art/sqlite370.ico af56c1d00fee7cd4753e8631ed60703ed0fc6e90
 F art/sqlite370.jpg d512473dae7e378a67e28ff96a34da7cb331def2
-F auto.def 3ee0c65b809262dab45d3a92c8af29a584fe0799cbe65c545214cabc2191f1ff
+F auto.def 9573eee350d0fde25473d4a221e99d6bc818296ee59a06dd6e1770ac501a0da9
 F autoconf/INSTALL 83e4a25da9fd053c7b3665eaaaf7919707915903
 F autoconf/Makefile.am adedc1324b6a87fdd1265ddd336d2fb7d4f36a0e77b86ea553ae7cc4ea239347
 F autoconf/Makefile.fallback 22fe523eb36dfce31e0f6349f782eb084e86a5620b2b0b4f84a2d6133f53f5ac
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ F autosetup/cc-lib.tcl 493c5935b5dd3bf9bd4eca89b07c8b1b1a9356d61783035144e21795f
 F autosetup/cc-shared.tcl 4f024e94a47f427ba61de1739f6381ef0080210f9fae89112d5c1de1e5460d78
 F autosetup/cc.tcl 7e2fe943ae9d45cf39e9f5b05b6230df8e719415edea5af06c30eb68680bde14
 F autosetup/default.auto 5cdf016de2140e50f1db190a02039dc42fb390af1dda4cc4853e3042a9ef0e82
-F autosetup/hwaci-common.tcl 8bb16ac39af463ad58a499a12ab3c813e003d6d7dd8ed90f94375b05ae4cdbd4
+F autosetup/hwaci-common.tcl 940f337970affdc3958c49620cb4565f3e47956cbd65bb5c42f7d121699e2301
 F autosetup/jimsh0.c 1b5fe91fffcddbc29f2b16acb80f1650632ea2edbe8336b8155ef7b4c66f6d8d
 F autosetup/pkg-config.tcl 4e635bf39022ff65e0d5434339dd41503ea48fc53822c9c5bde88b02d3d952ba
 F autosetup/system.tcl 3a39d6e0b3bfba526fd39afe07c1d0d325e5a31925013a1ba7c671e1128e31bb
@@ -711,7 +711,7 @@ F ext/wasm/wasmfs.make bc8bb227f35d5bd3863a7bd2233437c37472a0d81585979f058f9b9b5
 F install-sh 9d4de14ab9fb0facae2f48780b874848cbf2f895 x
 F ltmain.sh 3ff0879076df340d2e23ae905484d8c15d5fdea8
 F magic.txt 5ade0bc977aa135e79e3faaea894d5671b26107cc91e70783aa7dc83f22f3ba0
-F main.mk 10bec40eca5f1e371130e12d0eef005d630b7f0885d3a0137ad489c54a78f9b7
+F main.mk 5ca16e37a99044ef67f386e96a2ce5b39e0adcb8ecae0e709131c5a968eebb2a
 F mptest/config01.test 3c6adcbc50b991866855f1977ff172eb6d901271
 F mptest/config02.test 4415dfe36c48785f751e16e32c20b077c28ae504
 F mptest/crash01.test 61e61469e257df0850df4293d7d4d6c2af301421
@@ -2240,8 +2240,8 @@ F vsixtest/vsixtest.tcl 6195aba1f12a5e10efc2b8c0009532167be5e301abe5b31385638080
 F vsixtest/vsixtest.vcxproj.data 2ed517e100c66dc455b492e1a33350c1b20fbcdc
 F vsixtest/vsixtest.vcxproj.filters 37e51ffedcdb064aad6ff33b6148725226cd608e
 F vsixtest/vsixtest_TemporaryKey.pfx e5b1b036facdb453873e7084e1cae9102ccc67a0
-P 707e0f5857d58ec8b457270f988126b1dd0f01b5a3445a43ff7b5429324b1b3d
-R 7e557d1ad5ee2c5b2e44bb3a9becbb6a
+P 09905ed094f7102dbb4fc81b059452c50b48b0f3a2bd9736bed364b0639d89d7
+R 126cdd45532fc2c4fa2ebf63ee339ba7
 U stephan
-Z 03e1de4c6fd20e15dd82a14719fd967a
+Z 1f20d077d4fd19ab2a63a6f4aa9c0e5c
 # Remove this line to create a well-formed Fossil manifest.
diff --git a/manifest.uuid b/manifest.uuid
index 72e5783713..daa62969d1 100644
--- a/manifest.uuid
+++ b/manifest.uuid
@@ -1 +1 @@
-09905ed094f7102dbb4fc81b059452c50b48b0f3a2bd9736bed364b0639d89d7
+dcf4fc78fb2813d37eb56c358009f1e5225f28a0c85c710c8127db330efaf319