diff --git a/build/build.mk b/build/build.mk
index bf0e51d38ec..3e629bb2c5d 100644
--- a/build/build.mk
+++ b/build/build.mk
@@ -65,10 +65,9 @@ snapshot:
 	md5sum $$distname.tar.bz2; \
 	bzip2 -t $$distname.tar.bz2
 
-cvsclean:
+cvsclean-work:
 	@for i in `find . -name .cvsignore`; do \
 		(cd `dirname $$i` 2>/dev/null && rm -rf `cat .cvsignore | grep -v config.nice` *.o *.a .libs || true); \
 	done
 
-.PHONY: $(ALWAYS) snapshot cvsclean
-.PRECIOUS: cvsclean
+.PHONY: $(ALWAYS) snapshot
diff --git a/cvsclean b/cvsclean
index e98ec49b768..3d084df86ff 100755
--- a/cvsclean
+++ b/cvsclean
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #! /bin/sh
 
-${MAKE:-make} -f build/build.mk cvsclean
+${MAKE:-make} -f build/build.mk cvsclean-work