diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a839860..fa6c26b 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ IF(NOT TARGET protobuf)
   SET(protobuf_BUILD_SHARED_LIBS OFF CACHE BOOL "disable shared libraries")
   #SET(WITH_PROTOC ON CACHE BOOL "enable building of protoc")
   add_subdirectory(libs/protobuf EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
+  set(PROTOC ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/libs/protobuf/protoc CACHE INTERNAL "" )
+  set(PROTO_SRC_PATH ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/protobuf/src CACHE INTERNAL "" )
 ENDIF()
 
 # we are building with c++20
diff --git a/cmake/Modules/protobuf.cmake b/cmake/Modules/protobuf.cmake
index e2fd5f4..6ecc308 100644
--- a/cmake/Modules/protobuf.cmake
+++ b/cmake/Modules/protobuf.cmake
@@ -13,8 +13,6 @@ function(protobuf_generate_cpp)
                         ${ARGN})
 
     FILE(GLOB PROTO_FILES ${protobuf_PROTO_PATH}/*.proto)
-    set(PROTOC ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/libs/protobuf/protoc)
-    # set(PROTOC protoc)
 
    FOREACH(proto ${PROTO_FILES})
      FILE(TO_NATIVE_PATH ${proto} proto_native)
@@ -25,7 +23,7 @@ function(protobuf_generate_cpp)
      add_custom_command(
          OUTPUT "${protoDIR}/${protoFILENAME}.pb.cc"
          DEPENDS "${protoDIR}/${protoFILENAME}.proto"
-         COMMAND ${PROTOC} --cpp_out=${protoDIR} --proto_path=${protoDIR} --proto_path="${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/libs/protobuf/src" "${protoDIR}/${protoFILENAME}.proto"
+         COMMAND ${PROTOC} --cpp_out=${protoDIR} --proto_path=${protoDIR} --proto_path=${PROTO_SRC_PATH} "${protoDIR}/${protoFILENAME}.proto"
      )
     
   ENDFOREACH(proto)