diff --git a/applets/Kbuild b/applets/Kbuild
index 6c1c8a334..983037987 100644
--- a/applets/Kbuild
+++ b/applets/Kbuild
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ always:= $(hostprogs-y)
 
 # This trick decreases amount of rebuilds
 # if tree is merely renamed/copied
-ifeq ($(src),$(obj))
+ifeq ($(srctree),$(objtree))
 srctree_slash =
 else
 srctree_slash = $(srctree)/