diff --git a/distribute.sh b/distribute.sh
index 0bdf90ced8..37ef7b75d8 100755
--- a/distribute.sh
+++ b/distribute.sh
@@ -431,6 +431,15 @@ function run_get_packages() {
 
 	for module in $MODULES; do
 		# download dependencies for this module
+		# check if there is not an overload from environment
+		module_dir=$(eval "echo \$P4A_${module}_DIR")
+		if [ "$module_dir" ]
+		then
+			debug "\$P4A_${module}_DIR is not empty, using $module_dir dir instead of downloading"
+			cp -rf $module_dir $directory
+			directory=$(get_directory $filename)
+			continue
+		fi
 		debug "Download package for $module"
 
 		url="URL_$module"
diff --git a/docs/source/usage.rst b/docs/source/usage.rst
index 20b5256c27..2f27677173 100644
--- a/docs/source/usage.rst
+++ b/docs/source/usage.rst
@@ -19,6 +19,13 @@ You can include other modules (or "recipes") to compile using `-m`::
 
 For a full list, refer to :ref:`recipes`
 
+.. note::
+
+   Recipes download a defined version of their needed package from the
+   internet, and build from it, if you know what you are doing, and want to
+   override that, you can export the env variable `P4A_recipe_name_DIR` and
+   this directory will be copied and used instead.
+
 Available options to `distribute.sh`::
 
     -d directory           Name of the distribution directory