Recursive Makefiles, just build object files

I have a module[1] that builds a bundled library that has source in a  
top level directory and a subdirectory.

For the current release I've dumped a Makefile.PL in the bundled  
library's root that invokes its configure script and then adds a  
'test' target to the generated Makefile. That successfully builds the  
library and leaves a bunch of object files that my top level  
Makefile.PL lists in its OBJECT attribute. That sort of works but it's  
clunky and probably won't work on, e.g., Windows.

I'd like to use MakeMaker to write the nested Makefiles instead. I've  
written a Makefile.PL for the bundled library that writes a config.h  
based on $Config and then uses MakeMaker to write a Makefile.

So I have

   ./Makefile.PL
   ./the_library/Makefile.PL
   ./the_library/subdir/Makefile.PL

It sort of works but the generated Makefiles attempt to build a  
library at each level in the directory hierarchy. Is there a simple  
way to instruct MakeMaker to write a Makefile that just compiles?

I guess I need to SKIP some Makefile sections - but I can't find a  
combination of SKIPs that results in a successful build without  
creating blib/*.

I suspect I'm being obtuse :)

[1] http://search.cpan.org/~andya/re-engine-Oniguruma

-- 
Andy Armstrong, Hexten