diff --git a/mk/depend-.mk b/mk/depend-.mk
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9d13b527
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mk/depend-.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# This space left intentionally blank because gmake does not load .depend
+# by default
diff --git a/mk/depend-gmake.mk b/mk/depend-gmake.mk
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..947843e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mk/depend-gmake.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# Tell gmake to include the optional dependency file.
+# This sucks, but I don't know any other way of portably making this work.
+-include .depend
diff --git a/mk/depend.mk b/mk/depend.mk
index 2ae6e1e8..8e66c1cd 100644
--- a/mk/depend.mk
+++ b/mk/depend.mk
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@ IGNOREFILES+=	.depend
 
 depend: .depend extra_depend
 
-# Nasty hack for gmake which does not automatically include .depend
-# if it exists, unlike every other make implementation.
-INC_DEPEND= $(shell if test -e .depend; then echo ".depend"; else echo ""; fi)
-include ${INC_DEPEND}
+# Nasty hack. depend-.mk is a blank file, depend-gmake.mk has a gmake specific
+# command to optionally include .depend.
+# Someone should patch gmake to optionally include .depend if it exists.
+_INC_DEP=	$(shell if ${MAKE} --version | grep -q "^GNU "; then \
+		echo "gmake"; else echo ""; fi)
+include ${MK}/depend-${_INC_DEP}.mk