diff --git a/build-scripts/compile-options b/build-scripts/compile-options
index 52ec21e3c..0caf6140f 100644
--- a/build-scripts/compile-options
+++ b/build-scripts/compile-options
@@ -5,22 +5,30 @@
 
 # Autodect PROJECT if not set
 
-if [ x"$PROJECT" = x ]
+if [ -z "$PROJECT" ]
 then
     case x"$JOB_NAME" in
-        *-community-*)   PROJECT=community;;
-        *-enterprise-*)  PROJECT=nova;;
-        *-hub-*)         PROJECT=nova;;
-        *-agent-*)       PROJECT=nova;;
+        *-community-*)
+            PROJECT=community
+            ;;
+        *-enterprise-*)
+            PROJECT=nova
+            ;;
+        *-hub-*)
+            PROJECT=nova
+            ;;
+        *-agent-*)
+            PROJECT=nova
+            ;;
     esac
 fi
 
-# If still not set, then either we are running outside Jenkins, or this
-# is not a main "build" type job (it could be the bootstrap job).
+# If still not set, then either we are running outside Jenkins,
+# or this is not a main "build" type job (it could be the bootstrap job).
 # Do directory-based auto-detection.
-if [ x"$PROJECT" = x ]
+if [ -z "$PROJECT" ]
 then
-   if [ -d $BASEDIR/nova ]
+   if [ -d "$BASEDIR"/nova ]
    then
        PROJECT=nova
    else
@@ -34,7 +42,7 @@ export PROJECT
 # When running manually, you can just export this variable.
 # It's a flag: if it's set to 1 - then we use system OpenSSL.
 # Otherwise, we build it.
-if [ x"$SYSTEM_SSL" = x ]
+if [ -z "$SYSTEM_SSL" ]
 then
     # We don't bundle OpenSSL on RHEL 8 (and newer in the future)
     if [ "$OS" = "rhel" ] && expr "$OS_VERSION" ">=" "8" >/dev/null
@@ -51,17 +59,20 @@ export SYSTEM_SSL
 
 case "$OS_FAMILY" in
   aix)
-    # This flag is needed because AIX defaults to producing .a shared libraries,
-    # but we need it to make .so libraries. It doesn't work correctly when
-    # specified in the Makefile, so we specify it in the environment instead.
+    # This flag is needed because AIX defaults to producing .a shared libraries, but we need it to make .so libraries.
+    # It doesn't work correctly when specified in the Makefile, so we specify it in the environment instead.
     LDFLAGS="-Wl,-brtl"
 
-    # AIX needs default RPATH (libpath on AIX) specified as well, otherwise it
-    # won't find libc.
+    # AIX needs default RPATH (libpath on AIX) specified as well, otherwise it won't find libc.
     LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L$BUILDPREFIX/lib -Wl,-blibpath:$BUILDPREFIX/lib:/usr/lib:/lib"
     ;;
   hpux)
     LDFLAGS="-L$BUILDPREFIX/lib -Wl,+b$BUILDPREFIX/lib"
+
+    # Use ‘gcc’ when building things on HP-UX
+    #
+    # HP-UX ships with ‘cc’ which invokes the ‘HP-UX bundled C compiler’ which lacks some functionality we need to build things.
+    # Among the other things, it doesn’t know how to link ‘.so’ files directly and it doesn’t recognize them as valid input type.
     CC=gcc
     export CC
     ;;
@@ -82,7 +93,7 @@ case "$OS_FAMILY" in
 esac
 
 # When we don't bundle OpenSSL, then we need to pull it from /usr/lib64.
-if [ x"$SYSTEM_SSL" = x1 ]
+if [ "$SYSTEM_SSL" = 1 ]
 then
   LDFLAGS="$LDFLAGS -L/usr/lib64"
 fi
@@ -92,115 +103,97 @@ export LDFLAGS
 DEB_LDFLAGS_APPEND="$LDFLAGS"
 export DEB_LDFLAGS_APPEND
 
-# Embedded DB selection
-EMBEDDED_DB="lmdb"
-
-
 
 ############### Fill in build dependencies in DEPS variable ################
 
 DEPS=
-[ $OS_FAMILY = mingw ]  &&  var_append DEPS "pthreads-w32 libgnurx"
 
-# libgcc_s.so is needed before we compile any other dependency
-#             on some platforms!
-case "$OS_FAMILY" in
-    solaris|aix)  var_append DEPS "libgcc" ;;
-esac
+# Windows specific dependencies
+if [ "$OS_FAMILY" = mingw ]; then
+    # Win32 does not support pthreads natively.
+    # The pthreads-w32 project provides a solution to this problem.
+    var_append DEPS "pthreads-w32"
 
-var_append DEPS "$EMBEDDED_DB pcre2"
-
-if ! [ x"$SYSTEM_SSL" = x1 ]
-then
-  # FIXME: Why do we need zlib?
-  # ANSWER: Openssl uses it optionally, TODO DISABLE
-  var_append DEPS "zlib openssl"
+    # A port of the regex functionality from the glibc Library for use on Windows platforms
+    var_append DEPS "libgnurx"
 fi
 
-# libsasl needed for solaris
+# AIX / Solaris specific dependencies
 case "$OS_FAMILY" in
-    solaris|hpux)  var_append DEPS "sasl2" ;;
-esac
+    solaris|aix)
 
-# iconv is needed for libxml2 on some platforms
-case "$OS_FAMILY" in
-   aix|solaris)  var_append DEPS "libiconv" ;;
+        # libgcc_s.so is needed before we compile any other dependency on some platforms!
+        var_append DEPS "libgcc"
+
+        # iconv is needed for libxml2 on some platforms
+        var_append DEPS "libiconv"
+        ;;
 esac
 
-var_append DEPS "libxml2 libyaml"
-var_append DEPS "diffutils"
-var_append DEPS "librsync"
+# We use system bundled SSL on RHEL >= 8
+if ! [ "$SYSTEM_SSL" = 1 ]
+then
+  # zlib is a compression library witch is a dependency of OpenSSL.
+  # However, can we remove it (CFE-4013)?
+  var_append DEPS "zlib"
 
-# LDAP functions in the agent
-# and LDAP authentication functionality in Mission Portal
-case "$PROJECT" in
-    nova)  var_append DEPS "openldap"
-esac
+  # Toolkit for TLS
+  var_append DEPS "openssl"
+fi
 
-case "$PROJECT" in
-    nova)  var_append DEPS "leech"
+# Solaris / HP-UX specific dependencies
+case "$OS_FAMILY" in
+    solaris|hpux)
+        # Generic library that implements the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) framework
+        var_append DEPS "sasl2"
+        ;;
 esac
 
-# libacl & libattr - not for the exotics (linux only?)
+# Common dependencies
+var_append DEPS "libxml2"   # Library for parsing XML
+var_append DEPS "libyaml"   # Library for parsing YAML
+var_append DEPS "diffutils" # Library for comparing files
+var_append DEPS "librsync"  # Library for synchronization of files
+var_append DEPS "lmdb"      # Library for key-value store, used extensively by
+                            # CFEngine components (cf-agent, etc)
+var_append DEPS "pcre2"     # Library for compiling/matching regex
+
+# Enterprise only dependencies
+if [ "$PROJECT" = nova ]; then
+    # openldap is used for storing accounts, passwords and group memberships
+    # - Agent has LDAP related policy functions
+    # - Mission Portal uses LDAP for authentication functionality
+    var_append DEPS "openldap"
+
+    # leech is used for efficient synchronization of tabular data.
+    # - cf-hub requests state changes from cf-serverd
+    # - state changes are recorded by cf-agent
+    var_append DEPS "leech"
+fi
+
+# Non-exotics dependencies
 case "$OS_FAMILY" in
-  hpux|aix|solaris|freebsd|mingw)       ;;
-  *)  var_append DEPS "libattr libacl"  ;;
-esac
+    hpux|aix|solaris|freebsd|mingw)
+        ;;
+    *)
+        # Library for managing Extended Attributes (xattrs) on filesystems
+        var_append DEPS "libattr"
 
-# ROLE
-# We can autodetect if we are building a hub or an agent, but
-# that is suboptimal since the list might change at any time or
-# we might want to build an agent package for a platform that is a hub
-# or viceversa. By default we assume the old behavior but if the
-# environment variable EXPLICIT_ROLE is defined, then we change our behavior
-# and build according to the role specified by it.
+        # POSIX Access Control Lists (ACLs) on filesystems
+        var_append DEPS "libacl"
+        ;;
+esac
 
 case "$EXPLICIT_ROLE" in
-    agent) ROLE=agent;;
-    hub)   ROLE=hub;;
+    agent)
+        ROLE=agent
+        ;;
+    hub)
+        ROLE=hub
+        ;;
     *)
-        # Not running under Jenkins?
-        if [ x"$JENKINS_SERVER_COOKIE" = x ]
-        then
-            case "$PROJECT-$ARCH-$OS-${OS_VERSION}" in
-                community-*) ROLE=agent;;
-                # We do not support 32 bits hubs anymore
-                nova-i386-*-*) ROLE=agent;;
-                nova-s390*-*-*) ROLE=agent;;
-                nova-*-centos-*) ROLE=hub;;
-                nova-*-debian-*) ROLE=hub;;
-                nova-*-opensuse-*) ROLE=hub;;
-                nova-*-rhel-*) ROLE=hub;;
-                nova-*-sles-*) ROLE=hub;;
-                nova-*-ubuntu-*) ROLE=hub;;
-                nova-*-mingw-*) ROLE=agent;;
-                nova-*) ROLE=agent;;
-                *)
-                    echo "Unknown project: $PROJECT"
-                    exit 42
-                    ;;
-            esac
-            echo "Autodetected $ROLE role based on missing Jenkins label and OS."
-
-        else    # we are running under Jenkins
-
-            # The "label" variable is set in multi-matrix jobs;
-            # thus it is *not set* in the bootstrap job.
-            case x"$label" in
-                x)
-                    echo "label is not set, assuming that this is not the main build job; Setting ROLE=agent."
-                    ROLE=agent
-                    ;;
-                *_HUB_*)
-                    echo "Autodetected hub role based on '_HUB_' in Jenkins label."
-                    ROLE=hub
-                    ;;
-                *)
-                    echo "Autodetected agent role based on missing '_HUB_' in Jenkins label."
-                    ROLE=agent
-                    ;;
-            esac
-        fi
+        echo "$(basename "$0"): Error: Bad EXPLICIT_ROLE '$EXPLICIT_ROLE': defaulting to 'agent'"
+        ROLE=agent
         ;;
 esac
 
@@ -212,32 +205,46 @@ export ROLE
 case "$ROLE" in
     # HUB-ONLY dependencies
     hub)
-        var_append DEPS "libcurl-hub"
-        var_append DEPS "nghttp2 libexpat apr apr-util apache git rsync"
-        var_append DEPS "postgresql php"
+        # Note that we make a separate curl package for the hub.
+        # This is because the hub will include the curl binary,
+        # but we don't want that for the clients.
+        var_append DEPS "libcurl-hub"  # Provides API for performing network requests
+        var_append DEPS "nghttp2"      # Provides implementation of the HTTP/2 protocol.
+        var_append DEPS "libexpat"     # Provides stream-oriented XML parser
+        var_append DEPS "apr apr-util" # Provides a common interface to underlying OS features (used by Apache)
+        var_append DEPS "apache"       # Provides HTTP server
+        var_append DEPS "git"          # Provides a version control system
+        var_append DEPS "rsync"        # Binary to efficiently synchronize files
+        var_append DEPS "postgresql"   # Relational database
+        var_append DEPS "php"          # Scripting language for web development
         ;;
     # AGENT-ONLY dependencies
     agent)
-        var_append DEPS "libcurl"
+        var_append DEPS "libcurl"      # Provides API for performing network requests
         ;;
 esac
 
+# Make sure init.d script and systemd service is used where needed.
+#
+# We install in all Linux platforms, because it does no harm on platforms without systemd,
+# and it has the advantage of working out of the box on platforms that adopt systemd later.
+if [ "$OS_FAMILY" = linux ]; then
+    WITH_SYSTEMD=yes
+else
+    WITH_SYSTEMD=no
+fi
 
-# systemd is not a build dependency, but should we generate
-# unit files for it?
-case "$OS_FAMILY" in
-  linux)  WITH_SYSTEMD=yes;;
-  *)      WITH_SYSTEMD=no;;
-esac
-
-
+# Determine whether or not to run tests
 case "$OS_FAMILY" in
-    mingw|freebsd)  TESTS=no  ;;
-    *)              TESTS=all ;;
+    mingw|freebsd)
+        TESTS=no
+        ;;
+    *)
+        TESTS=all
+        ;;
 esac
 export TESTS
 
-
 # Don't let existing LD_LIBRARY_PATH variables disturb the build.
 # Java sets this when Jenkins launches it.
 # PS! Solaris shell returns false if the var is already unset.
diff --git a/build-scripts/configure b/build-scripts/configure
index 931fa0319..be875eac3 100755
--- a/build-scripts/configure
+++ b/build-scripts/configure
@@ -15,12 +15,8 @@ esac
 
 P=$BUILDPREFIX
 
-ARGS="--prefix=$P --libdir=$P/lib --with-workdir=$P --sysconfdir=/etc --with-openssl=$P --with-pcre2=$P --with-librsync=$P --with-init-script"
+ARGS="--prefix=$P --libdir=$P/lib --with-workdir=$P --sysconfdir=/etc --with-lmdb=$P --with-openssl=$P --with-pcre2=$P --with-librsync=$P --with-init-script"
 
-if [ $EMBEDDED_DB = lmdb ]
-then
-    var_append ARGS "--with-lmdb=$P"
-fi
 case "$DEPS" in
     *pthreads-w32*)  var_append ARGS "--with-pthreads=$P" ;;
 esac
diff --git a/scripts/deptool.py b/scripts/deptool.py
index d884c9cad..607d1ed29 100644
--- a/scripts/deptool.py
+++ b/scripts/deptool.py
@@ -236,8 +236,6 @@ def deps_list(self, ref="master"):
         """Returns a sorted list of dependencies for given ref, for example: `["lcov", "libgnurx", "pthreads-w32"]`.
         Assumes the proper ref is checked out by `self.buildscripts_repo`.
         """
-        # TODO: get value of $EMBEDDED_DB from file
-        embedded_db = "lmdb"
         if ref == "3.7.x":
             options_file = self.buildscripts_repo.get_file(
                 "build-scripts/install-dependencies"
@@ -264,7 +262,6 @@ def deps_list(self, ref="master"):
         # in the middle we also do some clean-ups
         only_deps = (
             " ".join(only_deps)
-            .replace("$EMBEDDED_DB", embedded_db)
             .replace("libgcc ", "")
             .split(" ")
         )