diff --git a/src/Makefile b/src/Makefile
index 03d5d76cd2f..713a1b6bb9b 100644
--- a/src/Makefile
+++ b/src/Makefile
@@ -526,8 +526,8 @@ endif
 
 # These rules clean things up.	'modclean' cleans files generated by 'modules'
 # (except that it doesn't remove the modules that were copied to rtlib)
-# 'clean' cleans everything but dependency files, and 'depclean' cleans them
-# too.
+# 'clean' removes the build products (including, via 'objects', the userspace
+# dependency files), and 'depclean' removes the dependency files alone.
 modclean:
 	find -name '.*.cmd' -or -name '*.ko' -or -name '*.mod.c' -or -name '*.mod.o' | xargs rm -f
 	-rm -rf .tmp_versions
@@ -535,8 +535,15 @@ modclean:
 	-rm -f ../rtlib/*.ko
 	-rm -f ../rtlib/*.so
 
+# Realtime dependency files live in 'depends'; userspace ones sit next to
+# their objects as objects/**/*.d, so both have to go.  Dropping them forces
+# no recompilation (nothing depends on a .d existing), but it does clear
+# stale prerequisites -- a dependency file naming a source that has since
+# been renamed or moved otherwise aborts the build with "No rule to make
+# target", and there is no way out of that short of a full 'make clean'.
 depclean:
 	-rm -rf depends
+	-find objects -name '*.d' -print0 2>/dev/null | xargs -0 -r rm -f
 
 clean: genclean depclean modclean
 genclean: