diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 24cb6be85e..78a89f6830 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -181,8 +181,7 @@ $(if $(BASE_DIR),, $(error output directory "$(O)" does not exist))
 
 BR2_EXTERNAL_FILE = $(BASE_DIR)/.br2-external.mk
 -include $(BR2_EXTERNAL_FILE)
-$(shell support/scripts/br2-external \
-	-m -o '$(BR2_EXTERNAL_FILE)' $(BR2_EXTERNAL))
+$(shell support/scripts/br2-external -d '$(BASE_DIR)' $(BR2_EXTERNAL))
 BR2_EXTERNAL_ERROR =
 include $(BR2_EXTERNAL_FILE)
 ifneq ($(BR2_EXTERNAL_ERROR),)
@@ -934,7 +933,7 @@ HOSTCFLAGS = $(CFLAGS_FOR_BUILD)
 export HOSTCFLAGS
 
 .PHONY: prepare-kconfig
-prepare-kconfig: outputmakefile $(BASE_DIR)/.br2-external.in
+prepare-kconfig: outputmakefile
 
 $(BUILD_DIR)/buildroot-config/%onf:
 	mkdir -p $(@D)/lxdialog
@@ -1031,13 +1030,6 @@ ifeq ($(NEED_WRAPPER),y)
 	$(Q)$(TOPDIR)/support/scripts/mkmakefile $(TOPDIR) $(O)
 endif
 
-# Even though the target is a real file, we mark it as PHONY as we
-# want it to be re-generated each time make is invoked, in case the
-# value of BR2_EXTERNAL is changed.
-.PHONY: $(BASE_DIR)/.br2-external.in
-$(BASE_DIR)/.br2-external.in: $(BUILD_DIR)
-	$(Q)support/scripts/br2-external -k -o "$(@)" $(BR2_EXTERNAL)
-
 # printvars prints all the variables currently defined in our
 # Makefiles. Alternatively, if a non-empty VARS variable is passed,
 # only the variables matching the make pattern passed in VARS are
diff --git a/support/scripts/br2-external b/support/scripts/br2-external
index 26a5d230ab..1840cc937b 100755
--- a/support/scripts/br2-external
+++ b/support/scripts/br2-external
@@ -14,13 +14,11 @@ MANUAL_URL='https://buildroot.org/manual.html\#br2-external-converting'
 
 main() {
     local OPT OPTARG
-    local br2_ext ofile ofmt
+    local br2_ext outputdir
 
-    while getopts :kmo: OPT; do
+    while getopts :d: OPT; do
         case "${OPT}" in
-        o)  ofile="${OPTARG}";;
-        k)  ofmt="kconfig";;
-        m)  ofmt="mk";;
+        d)  outputdir="${OPTARG}";;
         :)  error "option '%s' expects a mandatory argument\n" "${OPTARG}";;
         \?) error "unknown option '%s'\n" "${OPTARG}";;
         esac
@@ -28,23 +26,18 @@ main() {
     # Forget options; keep only positional args
     shift $((OPTIND-1))
 
-    case "${ofmt}" in
-    mk|kconfig)
-        ;;
-    *)  error "no output format specified (-m/-k)\n";;
-    esac
-    if [ -z "${ofile}" ]; then
-        error "no output file specified (-o)\n"
+    if [ -z "${outputdir}" ]; then
+        error "no output directory specified (-d)\n"
     fi
 
-    exec >"${ofile}"
-
     # Trap any unexpected error to generate a meaningful error message
     trap "error 'unexpected error while generating ${ofile}\n'" ERR
 
     do_validate ${@//:/ }
 
-    do_${ofmt}
+    mkdir -p "${outputdir}"
+    do_mk >"${outputdir}/.br2-external.mk"
+    do_kconfig >"${outputdir}/.br2-external.in"
 }
 
 # Validates the br2-external trees passed as arguments. Makes each of