diff --git a/bin/ruby-build b/bin/ruby-build
index 51fde4bb..229d4b0a 100755
--- a/bin/ruby-build
+++ b/bin/ruby-build
@@ -1190,21 +1190,9 @@ build_package_verify_openssl() {
   ' "$(basename "$(type -p yum apt-get | head -1)")" >&4 2>&1
 }
 
-# Ensure that directories listed in LDFLAGS exist
+# Kept for backward compatibility with 3rd-party definitions.
 build_package_ldflags_dirs() {
-  local ldflags
-  read -d '' -r -a ldflags <<<"$LDFLAGS" || true
-  local index=0
-  local dir
-  while [ "$index" -lt "${#ldflags[@]}" ]; do
-    dir=""
-    case "${ldflags[index]}" in
-    -L  ) dir="${ldflags[index+1]}" ;;
-    -L* ) dir="${ldflags[index]#-L}" ;;
-    esac
-    [ -z "$dir" ] || mkdir -p "$dir"
-    index=$((index+1))
-  done
+  true
 }
 
 build_package_enable_shared() {
@@ -1511,9 +1499,6 @@ else
   fi
 fi
 
-export LDFLAGS="-L${PREFIX_PATH}/lib ${LDFLAGS}"
-export CPPFLAGS="-I${PREFIX_PATH}/include ${CPPFLAGS}"
-
 unset RUBYOPT
 unset RUBYLIB
 
diff --git a/script/update-cruby b/script/update-cruby
index ad1c18ac..0ce2b224 100755
--- a/script/update-cruby
+++ b/script/update-cruby
@@ -26,5 +26,5 @@ fi
 
 cat > "$file" <<EOS
 !TODO! copy openssl line from other release with the same major.minor version
-install_package "ruby-${version}" "${url}#${sha256}" ldflags_dirs enable_shared standard verify_openssl
+install_package "ruby-${version}" "${url}#${sha256}" enable_shared standard verify_openssl
 EOS
diff --git a/test/build.bats b/test/build.bats
index 3c2829c2..aa31041c 100755
--- a/test/build.bats
+++ b/test/build.bats
@@ -748,7 +748,7 @@ DEF
   assert_failure "ruby-build: TMPDIR=$TMPDIR is set to a non-accessible location"
 }
 
-@test "initializes LDFLAGS directories" {
+@test "does not initialize LDFLAGS directories" {
   cached_tarball "ruby-2.0.0"
 
   export LDFLAGS="-L ${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME}/what/evs"
@@ -757,6 +757,6 @@ install_package "ruby-2.0.0" "http://ruby-lang.org/ruby/2.0/ruby-2.0.0.tar.gz" l
 DEF
   assert_success
 
-  assert [ -d "${INSTALL_ROOT}/lib" ]
-  assert [ -d "${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME}/what/evs" ]
+  assert [ ! -d "${INSTALL_ROOT}/lib" ]
+  assert [ ! -d "${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME}/what/evs" ]
 }