diff --git a/debianpkg/rules b/debianpkg/rules
index f924c89f46..a7f8b8c454 100755
--- a/debianpkg/rules
+++ b/debianpkg/rules
@@ -157,3 +157,8 @@ endif
 	rm debian/tmp/usr/lib/*.la
 	rm debian/tmp/usr/lib/frr/modules/*.la
 	rm debian/tmp/usr/lib/frr/libyang_plugins/*.la
+
+override_dh_auto_clean:
+# we generally do NOT want a full distclean since that wipes both
+# debianpkg/changelog and config.version
+	if test -f Makefile; then make redistclean; fi