diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.lib b/scripts/Makefile.lib
index fc498fee68edefe6c88afc2d546e0e459b9396d9..03905aa620ccff6c6a79d8e20e0b4b7445cae0e9 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.lib
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.lib
@@ -44,9 +44,9 @@ multi-objs-y := $(foreach m, $(multi-used-y), $($(m:.o=-objs)) $($(m:.o=-y)))
 multi-objs-m := $(foreach m, $(multi-used-m), $($(m:.o=-objs)) $($(m:.o=-y)))
 multi-objs   := $(multi-objs-y) $(multi-objs-m)
 
-# $(subdir-obj-y) is the list of objects in $(obj-y) which do not live
-# in the local directory
-subdir-obj-y := $(foreach o,$(obj-y),$(if $(filter-out $(o),$(notdir $(o))),$(o)))
+# $(subdir-obj-y) is the list of objects in $(obj-y) which uses dir/ to
+# tell kbuild to descend
+subdir-obj-y := $(filter %/built-in.o, $(obj-y))
 
 # $(obj-dirs) is a list of directories that contain object files
 obj-dirs := $(dir $(multi-objs) $(subdir-obj-y))