use $(CURDIR) instead of "..\..\.." because the later does not allow to use options as --with-zlib=../zlib-1.2.3. It seems there is no common way to learn the current directory in Win32 make's: although nmake has MAKEDIR variable, nevertheless Borland make's MAKEDIR is the directory where make is installed, and OpenWatcom wmake has no MAKEDIR at all.