diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index fe14cc57e..abffc7b83 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 2.91 -> 2.92
+	- fix: with --target=i686, pass macro %_arch=i386.
 	- fix: rpm --target=arch ... resurrected.
 	- fix: rpm -q --specfile --specedit now works even with BuildArch:.
 
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 9bf6db894..931891831 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -578,6 +578,22 @@ else
     ln -s ${srcdir}/autodeps/none ./find-requires
 fi
 
+dnl Determine the canonical arch-vendor-os for the build machine
+case "${build_cpu}" in
+i[x3456789]86)	RPMCANONARCH=i386 ;;
+alpha*)		RPMCANONARCH=alpha ;;
+sparc*)		RPMCANONARCH=sparc ;;
+*)		RPMCANONARCH=unknown ;;
+esac
+RPMCANONVENDOR="$build_vendor"
+case "${build_vendor}" in
+unknown)	test -f /etc/redhat-release && RPMCANONVENDOR=redhat ;;
+esac
+RPMCANONOS="$build_os_noversion"
+AC_SUBST(RPMCANONARCH)
+AC_SUBST(RPMCANONVENDOR)
+AC_SUBST(RPMCANONOS)
+
 if test -n "$LIBOBJS" ; then
     LIBMISC="$(top_builddir)/misc/libmisc.a"
 fi
diff --git a/macros.in b/macros.in
index 8a5e88aae..5eaada8d2 100644
--- a/macros.in
+++ b/macros.in
@@ -37,9 +37,7 @@
 #	These are the default values that will be overridden by any
 #	explicit values found in /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc or /etc/rpmrc.
 #
-%_buildarch		Unknown
 %_builddir		%{_topdir}/BUILD
-%_buildos		Linux
 %_bzip2bin		@BZIP2BIN@
 %_dbpath		%{_var}/lib/rpm
 %_defaultdocdir		/usr/doc
@@ -52,6 +50,14 @@
 %_srcrpmdir		%{_topdir}/SRPMS
 %_tmppath		%{_var}/tmp
 %_topdir		%{_usrsrc}/redhat
+
+#==============================================================================
+# ---- rpm per-platform macros.
+#	Per-platform macros.
+%_arch			@RPMCANONARCH@
+%_vendor		@RPMCANONVENDOR@
+%_os			@RPMCANONOS@
+%_target_platform	%{_target_cpu}-%{_vendor}-%{_target_os}
 #
 # XXX use the rpmrc instantiated macro for now
 #%optflags		-O2
@@ -104,10 +110,10 @@
 #	(Note: Above is the goal, below are the macros under development)
 #
 # The configure macro does the following:
-#	optionally change to a subdirectory.
-#	attempt to update onfig.guess and config.sub.
+#	optionally change to a subdirectory (not implemented).
+#	attempt to update config.guess and config.sub.
 #	run configure with correct prefix, platform, and CFLAGS.
-#	optionally restore current directory.
+#	optionally restore current directory (not implemented).
 # The configure macro should be invoked as %configure (rather than %{configure})
 # because the rest of the arguments will be expanded using %*. Another
 # gotcha is that arguments, if present, should be on the same line as the
@@ -115,4 +121,4 @@
 #
 %configure	\
   %{?__libtoolize:[ -f configure.in ] && %{__libtoolize} --copy --force} \
-  CFLAGS="%{optflags}" ./configure %{_target} --prefix=%{_prefix}
+  CFLAGS="%{optflags}" ../configure %{_target_platform} --prefix=%{_prefix}
diff --git a/rpm.spec b/rpm.spec
index 6d20f77ff..045b4c803 100644
--- a/rpm.spec
+++ b/rpm.spec
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ Summary: The Red Hat package management system.
 Name: rpm
 %define version 2.92
 Version: %{version}
-Release: 6
+Release: 7
 Group: System Environment/Base
 Source: ftp://ftp.rpm.org/pub/rpm/dist/rpm-2.5.x/rpm-%{version}.tar.gz
 Copyright: GPL
diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.in b/scripts/Makefile.in
index 8dfdffe70..7c3a3fa97 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.in
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.in
@@ -114,6 +114,9 @@ POSUB = @POSUB@
 RANLIB = @RANLIB@
 ROOT_GROUP = @ROOT_GROUP@
 RPM = @RPM@
+RPMCANONARCH = @RPMCANONARCH@
+RPMCANONOS = @RPMCANONOS@
+RPMCANONVENDOR = @RPMCANONVENDOR@
 RPMCONFIGDIR = @RPMCONFIGDIR@
 TARGET = @TARGET@
 U = @U@
diff --git a/tests/macros.in b/tests/macros.in
index e44952879..4e67e8ec3 100644
--- a/tests/macros.in
+++ b/tests/macros.in
@@ -37,9 +37,7 @@
 #	These are the default values that will be overridden by any
 #	explicit values found in /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc or /etc/rpmrc.
 #
-%_buildarch		Unknown
 %_builddir		%{_topdir}/BUILD
-%_buildos		Linux
 %_bzip2bin		@BZIP2BIN@
 %_dbpath		%{_var}/lib/rpm
 %_defaultdocdir		/usr/doc
@@ -52,6 +50,14 @@
 %_srcrpmdir		%{_topdir}/SRPMS
 %_tmppath		%{_var}/tmp
 %_topdir		%{_usrsrc}/redhat
+
+#==============================================================================
+# ---- rpm per-platform macros.
+#	Per-platform macros.
+%_arch			@RPMCANONARCH@
+%_vendor		@RPMCANONVENDOR@
+%_os			@RPMCANONOS@
+%_target_platform	%{_target_cpu}-%{_vendor}-%{_target_os}
 #
 # XXX use the rpmrc instantiated macro for now
 #%optflags		-O2
@@ -93,10 +99,10 @@
 %_host_vendor		@host_vendor@
 %_host_os		@host_os@
 %_target		%{_host}
-%_target_alias		%{_host_alias)
-%_target_cpu		%{_host_cpu)
-%_target_vendor		%{_host_vendor)
-%_target_os		%{_host_os)
+%_target_alias		%{_host_alias}
+%_target_cpu		%{_host_cpu}
+%_target_vendor		%{_host_vendor}
+%_target_os		%{_host_os}
 
 #==============================================================================
 # ---- specfile macros.
@@ -104,10 +110,10 @@
 #	(Note: Above is the goal, below are the macros under development)
 #
 # The configure macro does the following:
-#	optionally change to a subdirectory.
-#	attempt to update onfig.guess and config.sub.
+#	optionally change to a subdirectory (not implemented).
+#	attempt to update config.guess and config.sub.
 #	run configure with correct prefix, platform, and CFLAGS.
-#	optionally restore current directory.
+#	optionally restore current directory (not implemented).
 # The configure macro should be invoked as %configure (rather than %{configure})
 # because the rest of the arguments will be expanded using %*. Another
 # gotcha is that arguments, if present, should be on the same line as the
@@ -115,4 +121,4 @@
 #
 %configure	\
   %{?__libtoolize:[ -f configure.in ] && %{__libtoolize} --copy --force} \
-  CFLAGS="%{optflags}" ./configure %{_target} --prefix=%{_prefix}
+  CFLAGS="%{optflags}" ../configure %{_target_platform} --prefix=%{_prefix}