diff --git a/core/Makefile b/core/Makefile
index 83e7e7c03..cf22b113d 100644
--- a/core/Makefile
+++ b/core/Makefile
@@ -385,6 +385,10 @@ $(INSTALLED_RAMDISK_TARGET): $(MKBOOTFS) $(INTERNAL_RAMDISK_FILES) | $(MINIGZIP)
 	$(call pretty,"Target ram disk: $@")
 	$(hide) $(MKBOOTFS) $(TARGET_ROOT_OUT) | $(MINIGZIP) > $@
 
+.PHONY: ramdisk-nodeps
+ramdisk-nodeps: $(MKBOOTFS) | $(MINIGZIP)
+	@echo "make $@: ignoring dependencies"
+	$(hide) $(MKBOOTFS) $(TARGET_ROOT_OUT) | $(MINIGZIP) > $(INSTALLED_RAMDISK_TARGET)
 
 ifneq ($(strip $(TARGET_NO_KERNEL)),true)
 
@@ -422,12 +426,24 @@ $(INSTALLED_BOOTIMAGE_TARGET): $(MKEXT2IMG) $(INTERNAL_BOOTIMAGE_FILES)
 	$(call pretty,"Target boot image: $@")
 	$(hide) $(MKEXT2BOOTIMG) $(INTERNAL_BOOTIMAGE_ARGS) --output $@
 
+.PHONY: bootimage-nodeps
+bootimage-nodeps: $(MKEXT2IMG)
+	@echo "make $@: ignoring dependencies"
+	$(hide) $(MKEXT2BOOTIMG) $(INTERNAL_BOOTIMAGE_ARGS) --output $(INSTALLED_BOOTIMAGE_TARGET)
+
 else # TARGET_BOOTIMAGE_USE_EXT2 != true
 
 $(INSTALLED_BOOTIMAGE_TARGET): $(MKBOOTIMG) $(INTERNAL_BOOTIMAGE_FILES)
 	$(call pretty,"Target boot image: $@")
 	$(hide) $(MKBOOTIMG) $(INTERNAL_BOOTIMAGE_ARGS) $(BOARD_MKBOOTIMG_ARGS) --output $@
 	$(hide) $(call assert-max-image-size,$@,$(BOARD_BOOTIMAGE_PARTITION_SIZE),raw)
+
+.PHONY: bootimage-nodeps
+bootimage-nodeps: $(MKBOOTIMG)
+	@echo "make $@: ignoring dependencies"
+	$(hide) $(MKBOOTIMG) $(INTERNAL_BOOTIMAGE_ARGS) $(BOARD_MKBOOTIMG_ARGS) --output $(INSTALLED_BOOTIMAGE_TARGET)
+	$(hide) $(call assert-max-image-size,$(INSTALLED_BOOTIMAGE_TARGET),$(BOARD_BOOTIMAGE_PARTITION_SIZE),raw)
+
 endif # TARGET_BOOTIMAGE_USE_EXT2
 
 else	# TARGET_NO_KERNEL
@@ -1593,16 +1609,18 @@ $(INTERNAL_FINDBUGS_XML_TARGET): $(ALL_FINDBUGS_FILES)
 $(INTERNAL_FINDBUGS_HTML_TARGET): $(INTERNAL_FINDBUGS_XML_TARGET)
 	@echo ConvertXmlToText: $@
 	$(hide) prebuilt/common/findbugs/bin/convertXmlToText -html:fancy.xsl \
-	$(INTERNAL_FINDBUGS_XML_TARGET)	> $@
+	$(INTERNAL_FINDBUGS_XML_TARGET) > $@
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------
 # Findbugs
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------
 # These are some additional build tasks that need to be run.
+ifneq ($(dont_bother),true)
 include $(sort $(wildcard $(BUILD_SYSTEM)/tasks/*.mk))
 -include $(sort $(wildcard vendor/*/build/tasks/*.mk))
 -include $(sort $(wildcard device/*/build/tasks/*.mk))
+endif
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------
 # Create SDK repository packages. Must be done after tasks/* since
diff --git a/core/cleanbuild.mk b/core/cleanbuild.mk
index f32d0d1f0..fa673320c 100644
--- a/core/cleanbuild.mk
+++ b/core/cleanbuild.mk
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 #
 
 # Don't bother with the cleanspecs if you are running mm/mmm
-ifndef ONE_SHOT_MAKEFILE
+ifeq ($(ONE_SHOT_MAKEFILE)$(dont_bother),)
 
 INTERNAL_CLEAN_STEPS :=
 
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ clean_steps_file :=
 INTERNAL_CLEAN_STEPS :=
 INTERNAL_CLEAN_BUILD_VERSION :=
 
-endif  # ifndef ONE_SHOT_MAKEFILE
+endif  # if not ONE_SHOT_MAKEFILE dont_bother
 
 # Since products and build variants (unfortunately) share the same
 # PRODUCT_OUT staging directory, things can get out of sync if different
diff --git a/core/config.mk b/core/config.mk
index 8be539c70..96993c08e 100644
--- a/core/config.mk
+++ b/core/config.mk
@@ -159,6 +159,26 @@ endif
 TARGET_DEVICE_DIR := $(patsubst %/,%,$(dir $(board_config_mk)))
 board_config_mk :=
 
+# Perhaps we should move this block to build/core/Makefile,
+# once we don't have TARGET_NO_KERNEL reference in AndroidBoard.mk/Android.mk.
+ifneq ($(strip $(TARGET_NO_BOOTLOADER)),true)
+  INSTALLED_BOOTLOADER_MODULE := $(PRODUCT_OUT)/bootloader
+  ifeq ($(strip $(TARGET_BOOTLOADER_IS_2ND)),true)
+    INSTALLED_2NDBOOTLOADER_TARGET := $(PRODUCT_OUT)/2ndbootloader
+  else
+    INSTALLED_2NDBOOTLOADER_TARGET :=
+  endif
+else
+  INSTALLED_BOOTLOADER_MODULE :=
+  INSTALLED_2NDBOOTLOADER_TARGET :=
+endif # TARGET_NO_BOOTLOADER
+ifneq ($(strip $(TARGET_NO_KERNEL)),true)
+  INSTALLED_KERNEL_TARGET := $(PRODUCT_OUT)/kernel
+else
+  INSTALLED_KERNEL_TARGET :=
+endif
+
+
 # The build system exposes several variables for where to find the kernel
 # headers:
 #   TARGET_DEVICE_KERNEL_HEADERS is automatically created for the current
diff --git a/core/help.mk b/core/help.mk
index 9e37f82bf..6e0b2c02e 100644
--- a/core/help.mk
+++ b/core/help.mk
@@ -14,13 +14,6 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 #
 
-ifeq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),help)
-dont_bother := true
-endif
-ifeq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),out)
-dont_bother := true
-endif
-
 .PHONY: help
 help:
 	@echo
@@ -39,4 +32,3 @@ help:
 .PHONY: out
 out:
 	@echo "I'm sure you're nice and all, but no thanks."
-
diff --git a/core/main.mk b/core/main.mk
index 7b6ec2ab0..7ba9a7f1c 100644
--- a/core/main.mk
+++ b/core/main.mk
@@ -71,6 +71,22 @@ $(DEFAULT_GOAL):
 .PHONY: FORCE
 FORCE:
 
+# These goals don't need to collect and include Android.mks/CleanSpec.mks
+# in the source tree.
+dont_bother_goals := clean clobber dataclean installclean \
+    help out \
+    snod systemimage-nodeps \
+    stnod systemtarball-nodeps \
+    userdataimage-nodeps userdatatarball-nodeps \
+    cacheimage-nodeps \
+    vendorimage-nodeps \
+    ramdisk-nodeps \
+    bootimage-nodeps
+
+ifneq ($(filter $(dont_bother_goals), $(MAKECMDGOALS)),)
+dont_bother := true
+endif
+
 # Targets that provide quick help on the build system.
 include $(BUILD_SYSTEM)/help.mk
 
@@ -84,21 +100,6 @@ include $(BUILD_SYSTEM)/config.mk
 # be generated correctly
 include $(BUILD_SYSTEM)/cleanbuild.mk
 
-# These targets are going to delete stuff, don't bother including
-# the whole directory tree if that's all we're going to do
-ifeq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),clean)
-dont_bother := true
-endif
-ifeq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),clobber)
-dont_bother := true
-endif
-ifeq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),dataclean)
-dont_bother := true
-endif
-ifeq ($(MAKECMDGOALS),installclean)
-dont_bother := true
-endif
-
 # Include the google-specific config
 -include vendor/google/build/config.mk
 
@@ -675,6 +676,8 @@ ifdef is_sdk_build
       $(warning $(ALL_MODULES.$(m).MAKEFILE): Module '$(m)' in PRODUCT_PACKAGES_TESTS has nothing to install!)))
 endif
 
+endif # dont_bother
+
 # build/core/Makefile contains extra stuff that we don't want to pollute this
 # top-level makefile with.  It expects that ALL_DEFAULT_INSTALLED_MODULES
 # contains everything that's built during the current make, but it also further
@@ -684,8 +687,6 @@ include $(BUILD_SYSTEM)/Makefile
 modules_to_install := $(sort $(ALL_DEFAULT_INSTALLED_MODULES))
 ALL_DEFAULT_INSTALLED_MODULES :=
 
-endif # dont_bother
-
 
 # These are additional goals that we build, in order to make sure that there
 # is as little code as possible in the tree that doesn't build.
diff --git a/target/board/Android.mk b/target/board/Android.mk
index 7d94ee036..f8ecc4ef3 100644
--- a/target/board/Android.mk
+++ b/target/board/Android.mk
@@ -2,24 +2,6 @@
 # Set up product-global definitions and include product-specific rules.
 #
 
-ifneq ($(strip $(TARGET_NO_BOOTLOADER)),true)
-  INSTALLED_BOOTLOADER_MODULE := $(PRODUCT_OUT)/bootloader
-  ifeq ($(strip $(TARGET_BOOTLOADER_IS_2ND)),true)
-    INSTALLED_2NDBOOTLOADER_TARGET := $(PRODUCT_OUT)/2ndbootloader
-  else
-    INSTALLED_2NDBOOTLOADER_TARGET :=
-  endif
-else
-  INSTALLED_BOOTLOADER_MODULE :=
-  INSTALLED_2NDBOOTLOADER_TARGET :=
-endif	# TARGET_NO_BOOTLOADER
-
-ifneq ($(strip $(TARGET_NO_KERNEL)),true)
-  INSTALLED_KERNEL_TARGET := $(PRODUCT_OUT)/kernel
-else
-  INSTALLED_KERNEL_TARGET :=
-endif
-
 -include $(TARGET_DEVICE_DIR)/AndroidBoard.mk
 
 # Generate a file that contains various information about the