diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.build b/scripts/Makefile.build
index 4ef2c56a1..56ee07206 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.build
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.build
@@ -367,16 +367,14 @@ cmd_link_multi-y = $(LD) $(ld_flags) -r -o $@ $(link_multi_deps)
 quiet_cmd_link_multi-m = LD [M]  $@
 cmd_link_multi-m = $(LD) $(ld_flags) $(LDFLAGS_MODULE) -o $@ $(link_multi_deps)
 
-# We would rather have a list of rules like
-# 	foo.o: $(foo-objs)
-# but that's not so easy, so we rather make all composite objects depend
-# on the set of all their parts
-$(multi-used-y) : %.o: $(multi-objs-y) FORCE
+$(multi-used-y): FORCE
 	$(call if_changed,link_multi-y)
+$(call multi_depend, $(multi-used-y), .o, -objs -y)
 
-$(multi-used-m) : %.o: $(multi-objs-m) FORCE
+$(multi-used-m): FORCE
 	$(call if_changed,link_multi-m)
 	@{ echo $(@:.o=.ko); echo $(link_multi_deps); } > $(MODVERDIR)/$(@F:.o=.mod)
+$(call multi_depend, $(multi-used-m), .o, -objs -y)
 
 targets += $(multi-used-y) $(multi-used-m)
 
diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.lib b/scripts/Makefile.lib
index 934ee0780..57426d030 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.lib
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.lib
@@ -162,6 +162,15 @@ dtc_cpp_flags  = -Wp,-MD,$(depfile).pre -nostdinc                        \
 modname-multi = $(sort $(foreach m,$(multi-used),\
 		$(if $(filter $(subst $(obj)/,,$*.o), $($(m:.o=-objs)) $($(m:.o=-y))),$(m:.o=))))
 
+# Useful for describing the dependency of composite objects
+# Usage:
+#   $(call multi_depend, multi_used_targets, suffix_to_remove, suffix_to_add)
+define multi_depend
+$(foreach m, $(notdir $1), \
+	$(eval $(obj)/$m: \
+	$(addprefix $(obj)/, $(foreach s, $3, $($(m:%$(strip $2)=%$(s)))))))
+endef
+
 # Shipped files
 # ===========================================================================