diff --git a/SConscript b/SConscript
index f6875a630..10722007a 100644
--- a/SConscript
+++ b/SConscript
@@ -420,7 +420,9 @@ env.Command('targetarch', None, link_targetarch)
 
 
 # libelf build is described in its own SConscript file.
-SConscript('libelf/SConscript', exports = 'env', duplicate=0)
+# SConscript-local is the per-config build, which just copies some
+# header files into a place where they can be found.
+SConscript('libelf/SConscript-local', exports = 'env', duplicate=0)
 
 SConscript('sim/pyconfig/SConscript', exports = ['env', 'obj_desc_files'],
            duplicate=0)
diff --git a/build/SConstruct b/build/SConstruct
index 08eb13ea1..381b6ecda 100644
--- a/build/SConstruct
+++ b/build/SConstruct
@@ -246,6 +246,13 @@ default_env.Append(CCFLAGS='-pipe')
 default_env.Append(CCFLAGS='-fno-strict-aliasing')
 default_env.Append(CCFLAGS=Split('-Wall -Wno-sign-compare -Werror -Wundef'))
 
+# libelf build is described in its own SConscript file.  Using a
+# dictionary for exports lets us export "default_env" so the
+# SConscript will see it as "env".  SConscript-global is the build in
+# build/libelf shared among all configs.
+default_env.SConscript('m5/libelf/SConscript-global',
+                       exports={'env' : default_env})
+
 ###################################################
 #
 # Define build environments for selected configurations.