diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 18bf22d..7499cf8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,10 +1,5 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.19)
 
-find_package(Perl)
-if(NOT PERL_FOUND)
-    message(FATAL_ERROR "Perl is needed for generating the fsdata.c file")
-endif()
-
 set(PICO_BOARD pico_w)
 include(cmake/utils.cmake)
 
@@ -16,6 +11,10 @@ set(PICO_SDK_FETCH_FROM_GIT on)
 # note: this must happen before project()
 include(cmake/pico_sdk_import.cmake)
 
+if (NOT MAKEFSDATA_FOUND)
+    set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH} ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake)
+    find_package(MAKEFSDATA)
+endif()
 
 if(EXISTS cmake/credentials.cmake)
     # copy it over from cmake/credentials.cmake.example
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 29e99ff..bf660b1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ If you want to test this example with your html files, just add/edit them in the
 ### Dependencies:
 - CMake 3.19+
 - ARM GNU toolchain
-- [Perl](https://www.perl.org/get.html) (should be already present on *nix systems)
+- C++ toolchain for host architecture to build the makefsdata utility
 
 For the first two you can refer to [these instructions](https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/pico/getting-started-with-pico.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A39%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2C115%2C841.89%2Cnull%5D)
 
@@ -33,6 +33,12 @@ As per documentation:
 > SSI-enabled pages must have one of the predefined SSI-enabled file extensions
 
 Which means that no cost should be introduced in non SSI pages
+
+## FS data
+The `my_fsdata.c` file containing the HTML files is generated using [makefsdata](https://github.com/lwip-tcpip/lwip/tree/master/src/apps/http/makefsdata) executable compiled for the host machine.  
+It works on Mac in my testing, but the file only has `#ifdef` clauses for `__linux__` and `WIN32`,
+so we trick it into compiling by defining `__linux__` on Mac, which is generally a bad idea, but it was
+quicker to implement than creating patching logic.
 ### References
 - https://www.nongnu.org/lwip/2_1_x/group__httpd.html
 - https://github.com/lwip-tcpip/lwip/tree/master/contrib/examples/httpd
diff --git a/cmake/FindMAKEFSDATA.cmake b/cmake/FindMAKEFSDATA.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6cc051
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmake/FindMAKEFSDATA.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+# Finds (or builds) the makefsdata executable
+#
+# This will define the following variables
+#
+#    MAKEFSDATA_FOUND
+#
+# and the following imported targets
+#
+#     MAKEFSDATA
+#
+
+if (NOT MAKEFSDATA_FOUND)
+
+    include(ExternalProject)
+    find_program(MAKE_EXECUTABLE NAMES gmake make mingw32-make REQUIRED)
+    # We need to use the main CMakeLists.txt from lwip, but we'll build only makefsdata
+    set(MAKEFSDATA_SOURCE_DIR ${PICO_SDK_PATH}/lib/lwip)
+    set(MAKEFSDATA_BINARY_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/makefsdata)
+
+    set(MAKEFSDATA_BUILD_TARGET MAKEFSDATABuild)
+    set(MAKEFSDATA_TARGET makefsdata)
+
+    # horrible, horrible thing because makefsdata.c has a #ifdef __linux__ clause not caring about macs
+    if (APPLE)
+        message(WARNING "Setting up the linux define for apple, this might break things")
+        set(EXTRA_ARGS "-DCMAKE_C_FLAGS:STRING=\"-D__linux__\"")
+    endif()
+
+    if (NOT TARGET ${MAKEFSDATA_BUILD_TARGET})
+        ExternalProject_Add(${MAKEFSDATA_BUILD_TARGET}
+                PREFIX makefsdata SOURCE_DIR ${MAKEFSDATA_SOURCE_DIR}
+                BINARY_DIR ${MAKEFSDATA_BINARY_DIR}
+                BUILD_ALWAYS 1 # force dependency checking
+                CMAKE_ARGS ${EXTRA_ARGS}
+                BUILD_COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} --build ${MAKEFSDATA_BINARY_DIR} -t makefsdata
+                INSTALL_COMMAND ""
+                )
+    endif()
+
+    # depending on the platform the executable will be in different path
+    if(WIN32)
+        set(MAKEFSDATA_EXECUTABLE ${MAKEFSDATA_BINARY_DIR}/contrib/ports/win32/example_app/makefsdata)
+get_target_property(TARGET_LIBRARIES makefsdata LINK_LIBRARIES)
+message("Libraries at start")
+message(${TARGET_LIBRARIES})
+LIST(REMOVE_ITEM TARGET_LIBRARIES lwipcontribportwindows )
+message("Modified libraries list")
+message(${TARGET_LIBRARIES})
+set_property(TARGET makefsdata PROPERTY LINK_LIBRARIES  ${TARGET_LIBRARIES} )
+get_target_property(TARGET_LIBRARIES2 makefsdata LINK_LIBRARIES)
+message("Libraries after change")
+message(${TARGET_LIBRARIES2})
+    else()
+        set(MAKEFSDATA_EXECUTABLE ${MAKEFSDATA_BINARY_DIR}/contrib/ports/unix/example_app/makefsdata)
+    endif()
+
+    if(NOT TARGET ${MAKEFSDATA_TARGET})
+        add_executable(${MAKEFSDATA_TARGET} IMPORTED)
+    endif()
+    set_property(TARGET ${MAKEFSDATA_TARGET} PROPERTY IMPORTED_LOCATION
+            ${MAKEFSDATA_EXECUTABLE})
+
+    add_dependencies(${MAKEFSDATA_TARGET} ${MAKEFSDATA_BUILD_TARGET})
+    set(MAKEFSDATA_FOUND 1)
+endif()
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index c44f51a..03180d5 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,26 +1,15 @@
 set(PROGRAM_NAME pico_w_webserver)
 
-set(MAKE_FS_DATA_SCRIPT ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/external/makefsdata)
-
-if (NOT EXISTS ${MAKE_FS_DATA_SCRIPT})
-        file(DOWNLOAD
-                https://raw.githubusercontent.com/krzmaz/lwip/e15654409d14a238aec5ed4bd5516063938c9345/src/apps/http/makefsdata/makefsdata
-                ${MAKE_FS_DATA_SCRIPT}
-                )
-endif()
-message("Running makefsdata script")
-execute_process(COMMAND
-        perl ${MAKE_FS_DATA_SCRIPT}
+add_custom_target(
+        generate_fs
+        COMMAND makefsdata -11 -f:my_fsdata.c
         WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}
-        ECHO_OUTPUT_VARIABLE
-        ECHO_ERROR_VARIABLE
-        COMMAND_ERROR_IS_FATAL ANY
         )
-file(RENAME fsdata.c my_fsdata.c)
 
 add_executable(${PROGRAM_NAME}
         main.cpp
         )
+add_dependencies(${PROGRAM_NAME} generate_fs)
 target_compile_definitions(${PROGRAM_NAME} PRIVATE
         WIFI_SSID=\"${WIFI_SSID}\"
         WIFI_PASSWORD=\"${WIFI_PASSWORD}\"