diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 52da867a..bcd8a164 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -4,9 +4,6 @@ include $(path_to_top)/Makefile.config
 # TODO: Automagically rerun autoconf.
 
 SUBDIRS = doc po src
-
-
-clean-l:
-	rm -rf features.log
+CLEAN	= features.log
 
 include $(path_to_top)/Makefile.lib
diff --git a/Makefile.lib b/Makefile.lib
index 91cf7542..a532f6d9 100644
--- a/Makefile.lib
+++ b/Makefile.lib
@@ -59,8 +59,10 @@ endif
 	$(call cmd,archive)
 
 ifdef OBJS
+CLEAN += $(OBJS)
+
 clean-l:
-	rm -f $(OBJS) *.a
+	$(RM) $(CLEAN) *.a
 endif
 
 
@@ -81,5 +83,4 @@ all-l:
 install-l:
 clean-l:
 
-
 # vim:syntax=make
diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index ec0bb010..b6516338 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ doc-dirs:
 	$(INSTALL) -d $(DOC_DIRS)
 
 # $(MAN_DIR) intentionally left out
-clean-local:
+clean-l:
 	$(RM) -r $(HTML_DIR) $(XML_DIR) $(TXT_DIR) $(PDF_DIR) *.tmp