diff --git a/scripts/basic/fixdep.c b/scripts/basic/fixdep.c
index 7f6425e24ce3..078fe1d64e7d 100644
--- a/scripts/basic/fixdep.c
+++ b/scripts/basic/fixdep.c
@@ -320,49 +320,78 @@ static void parse_dep_file(void *map, size_t len)
 	char *end = m + len;
 	char *p;
 	char s[PATH_MAX];
-	int first;
-
-	p = strchr(m, ':');
-	if (!p) {
-		fprintf(stderr, "fixdep: parse error\n");
-		exit(1);
-	}
-	memcpy(s, m, p-m); s[p-m] = 0;
-	m = p+1;
+	int is_target;
+	int saw_any_target = 0;
+	int is_first_dep = 0;
 
 	clear_config();
 
-	first = 1;
 	while (m < end) {
+		/* Skip any "white space" */
 		while (m < end && (*m == ' ' || *m == '\\' || *m == '\n'))
 			m++;
+		/* Find next "white space" */
 		p = m;
-		while (p < end && *p != ' ') p++;
-		if (p == end) {
-			do p--; while (!isalnum(*p));
+		while (p < end && *p != ' ' && *p != '\\' && *p != '\n')
 			p++;
+		/* Is the token we found a target name? */
+		is_target = (*(p-1) == ':');
+		/* Don't write any target names into the dependency file */
+		if (is_target) {
+			/* The /next/ file is the first dependency */
+			is_first_dep = 1;
+		} else {
+			/* Save this token/filename */
+			memcpy(s, m, p-m);
+			s[p - m] = 0;
+
+			/* Ignore certain dependencies */
+			if (strrcmp(s, "include/generated/autoconf.h") &&
+			    strrcmp(s, "arch/um/include/uml-config.h") &&
+			    strrcmp(s, "include/linux/kconfig.h") &&
+			    strrcmp(s, ".ver")) {
+				/*
+				 * Do not list the source file as dependency,
+				 * so that kbuild is not confused if a .c file
+				 * is rewritten into .S or vice versa. Storing
+				 * it in source_* is needed for modpost to
+				 * compute srcversions.
+				 */
+				if (is_first_dep) {
+					/*
+					 * If processing the concatenation of
+					 * multiple dependency files, only
+					 * process the first target name, which
+					 * will be the original source name,
+					 * and ignore any other target names,
+					 * which will be intermediate temporary
+					 * files.
+					 */
+					if (!saw_any_target) {
+						saw_any_target = 1;
+						printf("source_%s := %s\n\n",
+							target, s);
+						printf("deps_%s := \\\n",
+							target);
+					}
+					is_first_dep = 0;
+				} else
+					printf("  %s \\\n", s);
+				do_config_file(s);
+			}
 		}
-		memcpy(s, m, p-m); s[p-m] = 0;
-		if (strrcmp(s, "include/generated/autoconf.h") &&
-		    strrcmp(s, "arch/um/include/uml-config.h") &&
-		    strrcmp(s, "include/linux/kconfig.h") &&
-		    strrcmp(s, ".ver")) {
-			/*
-			 * Do not list the source file as dependency, so that
-			 * kbuild is not confused if a .c file is rewritten
-			 * into .S or vice versa. Storing it in source_* is
-			 * needed for modpost to compute srcversions.
-			 */
-			if (first) {
-				printf("source_%s := %s\n\n", target, s);
-				printf("deps_%s := \\\n", target);
-			} else
-				printf("  %s \\\n", s);
-			do_config_file(s);
-		}
-		first = 0;
+		/*
+		 * Start searching for next token immediately after the first
+		 * "whitespace" character that follows this token.
+		 */
 		m = p + 1;
 	}
+
+	if (!saw_any_target) {
+		fprintf(stderr, "fixdep: parse error; no targets found\n");
+		exit(1);
+	}
+
 	printf("\n%s: $(deps_%s)\n\n", target, target);
 	printf("$(deps_%s):\n", target);
 }