--- a/NEWS	Wed Sep 30 08:36:29 2020 -0700
+++ b/NEWS	Wed Sep 30 08:36:21 2020 +0200
@@ -200,11 +200,6 @@
   `uipanel`        | `fontangle`   | `"oblique"`
   `uitable`        | `fontangle`   | `"oblique"`
 
-
-- `mkoctfile -p LFLAGS`<br>
-The environment variable used by `mkoctfile` for linker flags is now
-`LDFLAGS` rather than `LFLAGS`.  `LFLAGS` has been removed.
-
 ### Old release news
 
 - [Octave 6.x](etc/NEWS.6)

--- a/src/mkoctfile.in.cc	Wed Sep 30 08:36:29 2020 -0700
+++ b/src/mkoctfile.in.cc	Wed Sep 30 08:36:21 2020 +0200
@@ -226,6 +226,18 @@
   if (vars["INCLUDEDIR"] != "/usr/include")
     DEFAULT_INCFLAGS += " -I" + quote_path (vars["INCLUDEDIR"]);
 
+  std::string DEFAULT_LDFLAGS;
+
+#if (defined (OCTAVE_USE_WINDOWS_API) || defined (CROSS)) || (defined __APPLE__ && defined __MACH__)
+
+  // We'll be linking the files we compile with -loctinterp and -loctave,
+  // so we need to know where to find them.
+  DEFAULT_LDFLAGS += "-L" + quote_path (vars["OCTLIBDIR"]);
+#endif
+
+  if (vars["LIBDIR"] != "/usr/lib")
+    DEFAULT_LDFLAGS += " -L" + quote_path (vars["LIBDIR"]);
+
   vars["CPPFLAGS"] = get_variable ("CPPFLAGS", %OCTAVE_CONF_CPPFLAGS%);
 
   vars["INCFLAGS"] = get_variable ("INCFLAGS", DEFAULT_INCFLAGS);
@@ -313,6 +325,11 @@
   vars["LD_STATIC_FLAG"] = get_variable ("LD_STATIC_FLAG",
                                          %OCTAVE_CONF_LD_STATIC_FLAG%);
 
+  // FIXME: Remove LFLAGS in Octave 7.0
+  vars["LFLAGS"] = get_variable ("LFLAGS", DEFAULT_LDFLAGS);
+  if (vars["LFLAGS"] != DEFAULT_LDFLAGS)
+    std::cerr << "warning: LFLAGS is deprecated and will be removed in a future version of Octave, use LDFLAGS instead" << std::endl;
+
   vars["F77_INTEGER8_FLAG"] = get_variable ("F77_INTEGER8_FLAG",
                                             %OCTAVE_CONF_F77_INTEGER_8_FLAG%);
   vars["ALL_FFLAGS"] = vars["FFLAGS"] + ' ' + vars["F77_INTEGER8_FLAG"];