diff --git a/tools/perf/Makefile b/tools/perf/Makefile
index 64df5de12ca83c500862d184e5ba7fa525902e92..8359fa140d2d8c5e30d356688fb5b23230643be8 100644
--- a/tools/perf/Makefile
+++ b/tools/perf/Makefile
@@ -183,7 +183,10 @@ SCRIPT_SH += perf-archive.sh
 grep-libs = $(filter -l%,$(1))
 strip-libs = $(filter-out -l%,$(1))
 
-$(OUTPUT)python/perf.so: $(PYRF_OBJS)
+PYTHON_EXT_SRCS := $(shell grep -v ^\# util/python-ext-sources)
+PYTHON_EXT_DEPS := util/python-ext-sources util/setup.py
+
+$(OUTPUT)python/perf.so: $(PYRF_OBJS) $(PYTHON_EXT_SRCS) $(PYTHON_EXT_DEPS)
 	$(QUIET_GEN)CFLAGS='$(BASIC_CFLAGS)' $(PYTHON_WORD) util/setup.py \
 	  --quiet build_ext; \
 	mkdir -p $(OUTPUT)python && \
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/python-ext-sources b/tools/perf/util/python-ext-sources
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ff606f482a7cd6de1cec17b2ad1e05a75a2b5a95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/perf/util/python-ext-sources
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#
+# List of files needed by perf python extention
+#
+# Each source file must be placed on its own line so that it can be
+# processed by Makefile and util/setup.py accordingly.
+#
+
+util/python.c
+util/ctype.c
+util/evlist.c
+util/evsel.c
+util/cpumap.c
+util/thread_map.c
+util/util.c
+util/xyarray.c
+util/cgroup.c
+util/debugfs.c
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/setup.py b/tools/perf/util/setup.py
index 36d4c56195750440e748eabb89546dfa78506d09..d0f9f29cf181ad98900ebd9fe6baf2a915a32866 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/setup.py
+++ b/tools/perf/util/setup.py
@@ -24,11 +24,11 @@ cflags += getenv('CFLAGS', '').split()
 build_lib = getenv('PYTHON_EXTBUILD_LIB')
 build_tmp = getenv('PYTHON_EXTBUILD_TMP')
 
+ext_sources = [f.strip() for f in file('util/python-ext-sources')
+				if len(f.strip()) > 0 and f[0] != '#']
+
 perf = Extension('perf',
-		  sources = ['util/python.c', 'util/ctype.c', 'util/evlist.c',
-			     'util/evsel.c', 'util/cpumap.c', 'util/thread_map.c',
-			     'util/util.c', 'util/xyarray.c', 'util/cgroup.c',
-			     'util/debugfs.c'],
+		  sources = ext_sources,
 		  include_dirs = ['util/include'],
 		  extra_compile_args = cflags,
                  )