diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b6c5794..6deb2b6 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,5 +9,5 @@
 /tmp/
 ext/**/Makefile
 ext/**/*.o
-ext/**/*.bundle
+**/wordexp*.bundle
 *.gem
diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 455b89e..3a317b1 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ gem 'minitest', '~> 5.11'
 gem 'minitest-ci', '~> 3.4'
 gem 'minitest-reporters', '~> 1.3'
 gem 'rake', '~> 13.0'
+gem 'rake-compiler', '~> 1.1'
 gem 'rubocop', '1.24.1'
 gem 'rubocop-minitest', '0.17.0'
 gem 'rubocop-packaging', '0.5.1'
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 5d6161e..dac2bf8 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ GEM
       ast (~> 2.4.1)
     rainbow (3.1.1)
     rake (13.0.6)
+    rake-compiler (1.1.7)
+      rake
     regexp_parser (2.2.0)
     rexml (3.2.5)
     rubocop (1.24.1)
@@ -55,6 +57,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   minitest-ci (~> 3.4)
   minitest-reporters (~> 1.3)
   rake (~> 13.0)
+  rake-compiler (~> 1.1)
   rubocop (= 1.24.1)
   rubocop-minitest (= 0.17.0)
   rubocop-packaging (= 0.5.1)
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 39516b8..f15b4cd 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,19 +1,16 @@
 require 'bundler/gem_tasks'
 require 'English'
 require 'open3'
+require 'rake/extensiontask'
 require 'rake/testtask'
 require 'rubocop/rake_task'
 
-task :compile do
-  puts 'Compiling C extension'
-  # ignore clean failure because the Makefile may not exist yet
-  cmd = 'cd ext/wordexp_ext && (make clean || true) && ruby extconf.rb && make'
-  out, status = Open3.capture2e(cmd)
-  unless status.success?
-    warn out
-    raise 'Failed to compile native extension'
-  end
-  puts 'Done'
+task :clean do
+  `cd ext/wordexp_ext && make clean && rm -f Makefile`
+end
+
+Rake::ExtensionTask.new 'wordexp_ext' do |ext|
+  ext.lib_dir = 'lib/wordexp'
 end
 
 Rake::TestTask.new(test: :compile) do |t|
diff --git a/lib/wordexp.rb b/lib/wordexp.rb
index e8a6f48..46f88fb 100644
--- a/lib/wordexp.rb
+++ b/lib/wordexp.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-require 'wordexp_ext/wordexp_ext'
+require 'wordexp/wordexp_ext'
 
 module Wordexp
   autoload :CLI, 'wordexp/cli'