title: When/how to specify configure/make target
body: <p>Large variety of open-source projects are distributed in source-code and supposed to be compiled with <code>./configure &amp;&amp; make</code> approach. But if I want to cross-compile, at which of those two steps I am supposed to tell them what target platform I want to get the binary?</p>
  
  <p>Does it have to do with configure/make in general, or this is specific to every project? What could be an example of compiling some project, library or console application and specifying target? </p>
  
  <p>I know many projects have a web-page on their websites that is dedicated to "cross compiling this program". So it seems to be project-specific setting. But the project still uses configure/make, so what is the relation of all that?</p>