diff --git a/config/RULES_TOP b/config/RULES_TOP
index 8ba72c4ff..d19576ab9 100644
--- a/config/RULES_TOP
+++ b/config/RULES_TOP
@@ -4,14 +4,11 @@
 
 include $(TOP)/config/RULES_DIRS
 
-$(addprefix uninstall$(DIVIDER),$(BUILD_ARCHS))::
-	@$(RMDIR)  rec.bak rec
-	@$(RMDIR) $(INSTALL_LOCATION_BIN)/$* $(INSTALL_LOCATION_LIB)/$* \
-		$(INSTALL_DBD) $(INSTALL_MAN) $(INSTALL_INCLUDE) $(INSTALL_DOC)\
-		$(INSTALL_HTML) $(INSTALL_JAVA) $(INSTALL_TEMPLATES)
-	@$(MAKE) -f Makefile  cleandirs
+uninstall$(DIVIDER)%:
+	@$(RMDIR) $(INSTALL_LOCATION_BIN)/$* $(INSTALL_LOCATION_LIB)/$* 
 
 cleandirs:
+	@echo " " #stops "nothing to be done for cleandirs" message
 ifeq ($(wildcard $(INSTALL_LOCATION_BIN)/*),)
 	@$(RMDIR) $(INSTALL_LOCATION_BIN)
 endif
@@ -19,8 +16,13 @@ ifeq ($(wildcard $(INSTALL_LOCATION_LIB)/*),)
 	@$(RMDIR) $(INSTALL_LOCATION_LIB)
 endif
 
+distclean: clean uninstall
 
 uninstall:: $(addprefix uninstall$(DIVIDER),$(BUILD_ARCHS))
+	@$(RMDIR)  rec.bak rec
+	@$(RMDIR) $(INSTALL_DBD) $(INSTALL_MAN) $(INSTALL_INCLUDE) $(INSTALL_DOC)\
+		$(INSTALL_HTML) $(INSTALL_JAVA) $(INSTALL_TEMPLATES)
+	@$(MAKE) -f Makefile  cleandirs
 
 tar:
 	@DIRNAME=$(notdir $(shell pwd)); \
@@ -56,8 +58,5 @@ help:
 	@echo "Indiv. object targets are supported by O.<arch> level Makefile .e.g"
 	@echo "     xxxRecord.o"
 
-.PHONY :: uninstall tar help cleandirs
-.PHONY :: $(addprefix uninstall$(DIVIDER),$(BUILD_ARCHS))
-
-
+.PHONY :: uninstall tar help cleandirs distclean