diff --git a/cmake/config-ix.cmake b/cmake/config-ix.cmake
index b380a48637f..f6eeea9ee60 100755
--- a/cmake/config-ix.cmake
+++ b/cmake/config-ix.cmake
@@ -287,15 +287,18 @@ include(CheckCXXCompilerFlag)
 
 check_cxx_compiler_flag("-Wno-variadic-macros" SUPPORTS_NO_VARIADIC_MACROS_FLAG)
 
-include(GetTargetTriple)
-get_target_triple(LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE)
+include(GetHostTriple)
+get_host_triple(LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE)
 
+# By default, we target the host, but this can be overridden at CMake
+# invocation time.
+set(LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE "${LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE}")
 set(TARGET_TRIPLE "${LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE}")
 
 # Determine the native architecture.
 string(TOLOWER "${LLVM_TARGET_ARCH}" LLVM_NATIVE_ARCH)
 if( LLVM_NATIVE_ARCH STREQUAL "host" )
-  string(REGEX MATCH "^[^-]*" LLVM_NATIVE_ARCH ${LLVM_DEFAULT_TARGET_TRIPLE})
+  string(REGEX MATCH "^[^-]*" LLVM_NATIVE_ARCH ${LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE})
 endif ()
 
 if (LLVM_NATIVE_ARCH MATCHES "i[2-6]86")
diff --git a/cmake/modules/CMakeLists.txt b/cmake/modules/CMakeLists.txt
index 88d985208c7..f51e9af8db0 100644
--- a/cmake/modules/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/cmake/modules/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -32,6 +32,6 @@ install(DIRECTORY .
   PATTERN LLVMConfig.cmake EXCLUDE
   PATTERN LLVMConfigVersion.cmake EXCLUDE
   PATTERN LLVM-Config.cmake EXCLUDE
-  PATTERN GetTargetTriple.cmake EXCLUDE
+  PATTERN GetHostTriple.cmake EXCLUDE
   PATTERN VersionFromVCS.cmake EXCLUDE
   PATTERN CheckAtomic.cmake EXCLUDE)
diff --git a/cmake/modules/GetTargetTriple.cmake b/cmake/modules/GetHostTriple.cmake
similarity index 92%
rename from cmake/modules/GetTargetTriple.cmake
rename to cmake/modules/GetHostTriple.cmake
index f4321c9b67e..671a8ce7d7c 100644
--- a/cmake/modules/GetTargetTriple.cmake
+++ b/cmake/modules/GetHostTriple.cmake
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Returns the host triple.
 # Invokes config.guess
 
-function( get_target_triple var )
+function( get_host_triple var )
   if( MSVC )
     if( CMAKE_CL_64 )
       set( value "x86_64-pc-win32" )
@@ -27,4 +27,4 @@ function( get_target_triple var )
   endif( MSVC )
   set( ${var} ${value} PARENT_SCOPE )
   message(STATUS "Target triple: ${value}")
-endfunction( get_target_triple var )
+endfunction( get_host_triple var )