diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile
index 7739799c2566..bc845022a7ef 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/Makefile
@@ -773,14 +773,15 @@ endif
 # some X.test.o files have runtime dependencies on Y.bpf.o files
 $(OUTPUT)/$(TRUNNER_BINARY): | $(TRUNNER_BPF_OBJS)
 
-$(OUTPUT)/$(TRUNNER_BINARY): $(TRUNNER_TEST_OBJS)			\
+$(OUTPUT)/$(TRUNNER_BINARY): $(if $(filter test_progs%,$1),$(if $(PERMISSIVE),$$(wildcard $(TRUNNER_TEST_OBJS)),$(TRUNNER_TEST_OBJS)),$(TRUNNER_TEST_OBJS))	\
 			     $(TRUNNER_EXTRA_OBJS) $$(BPFOBJ)		\
 			     $(TRUNNER_LIB_OBJS)			\
 			     $(TRUNNER_BPFTOOL)				\
 			     $(OUTPUT)/veristat				\
-			     | $(TRUNNER_BINARY)-extras
+			     | $(TRUNNER_BINARY)-extras			\
+			     $(if $(filter test_progs%,$1),$(if $(PERMISSIVE),$(TRUNNER_TEST_OBJS)))
 	$$(call msg,BINARY,,$$@)
-	$(Q)$$(CC) $$(CFLAGS) $$(filter %.a %.o,$$^) $$(LDLIBS) $$(LLVM_LDLIBS) $$(LDFLAGS) $$(LLVM_LDFLAGS) -o $$@
+	$(Q)$$(CC) $$(CFLAGS) $(if $(filter test_progs%,$1),$(if $(PERMISSIVE),$$(filter %.a %.o,$$(wildcard $(TRUNNER_TEST_OBJS)) $$(filter-out $(TRUNNER_TEST_OBJS),$$^)),$$(filter %.a %.o,$$^)),$$(filter %.a %.o,$$^)) $$(LDLIBS) $$(LLVM_LDLIBS) $$(LDFLAGS) $$(LLVM_LDFLAGS) -o $$@
 	$(Q)ln -sf $(if $2,..,.)/tools/build/bpftool/$(USE_BOOTSTRAP)bpftool \
 		   $(OUTPUT)/$(if $2,$2/)bpftool