diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 66ab992442299b810c6ebfb5936f0773a9bac39b..72d42917d92256bd12682b715012b7c5d8559c8e 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # The default target of this Makefile is...
 all::
 
-# Define QUIET_MAKE to have a less verbose compile.
+# Define V=1 to have a more verbose compile.
 #
 # Define NO_OPENSSL environment variable if you do not have OpenSSL.
 # This also implies MOZILLA_SHA1.
@@ -604,7 +604,7 @@ endif
 ifdef NO_PERL_MAKEMAKER
 	export NO_PERL_MAKEMAKER
 endif
-ifdef QUIET_MAKE
+ifndef V
 	QUIET_CC       = @echo '   ' CC $<;
 	QUIET_AR       = @echo '   ' AR $@;
 	QUIET_LINK     = @echo '   ' LINK $@;
@@ -612,7 +612,7 @@ ifdef QUIET_MAKE
 	QUIET_GEN      = @echo '   ' GEN $@;
 	QUIET_SUBDIR0  = @subdir=
 	QUIET_SUBDIR1  = ;echo '   ' SUBDIR $$subdir; $(MAKE) -C$$subdir
-	export QUIET_MAKE
+	export V
 else
 	QUIET_SUBDIR0  = $(MAKE) -C
 	QUIET_SUBDIR1  =
diff --git a/perl/Makefile b/perl/Makefile
index 2fceff27910d45359bd9955745a92020f501cd0e..17d004e5a0a19dc59b928a96a71d1470deb06e53 100644
--- a/perl/Makefile
+++ b/perl/Makefile
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ makfile:=perl.mak
 PERL_PATH_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(PERL_PATH))
 prefix_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(prefix))
 
-ifdef QUIET_MAKE
+ifndef V
 	QUIET = @
 endif
 
diff --git a/templates/Makefile b/templates/Makefile
index 81bd86ccf3949afe8d2381f4ed2fcceb0439d698..b8352e731bf4baffbda780a1420f52ca4670b828 100644
--- a/templates/Makefile
+++ b/templates/Makefile
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # make and install sample templates
 
-ifdef QUIET_MAKE
+ifndef V
 	QUIET = @
 endif