diff --git a/silecs-communication-cpp/Makefile.dep b/silecs-communication-cpp/Makefile.dep
index 1cf11595b77d9147920869e190b384262cafc13b..a0318fd8395f20d30bc860118669f08b8872dc1d 100644
--- a/silecs-communication-cpp/Makefile.dep
+++ b/silecs-communication-cpp/Makefile.dep
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 BOOST_VERSION ?= 1.54.0
 
-LIBXML_PATH = /usr/include/libxml2/
-SNAP7_BASE = ../snap7/snap7-full
+LIBXML_PATH ?= /usr/include/libxml2/
+SNAP7_BASE ?= ../snap7/snap7-full
 BOOST_HOME ?= /opt/gsi/3rdparty/boost/$(BOOST_VERSION)
 
 DEPENDENT_COMPILER_OPTIONS += -I$(LIBXML_PATH)