diff --git a/src/tools/makeDbDepends.pl b/src/tools/makeDbDepends.pl
index 729814326..16834de10 100644
--- a/src/tools/makeDbDepends.pl
+++ b/src/tools/makeDbDepends.pl
@@ -3,31 +3,22 @@ eval 'exec perl -S $0 ${1+"$@"}'  # -*- Mode: perl -*-
 
 # Called from within RULES.Db in the Db directories.
 # Searches .substitutions and .template files (from the command line) for
-# "file xxx {" entries to create a DEPENDS file
-#  and 
-# 'include "xxx"' entries to create a DEPENDS file
+#   file ["']xxx["'] {
+# and
+#   include "xxx"
+# entries to include in the DEPENDS file
 
+use strict;
 
-$target = $ARGV[0];
-shift @ARGV;
+my $target = shift @ARGV;
+my %depends;
 
-
-foreach $file (@ARGV) {
-    open(IN, "<$file") or die "Cannot open $file: $!";
-    @infile = <IN>;
-    close IN or die "Cannot close $file: $!";
-
-    @depends = grep { s/^\s*file\s*(.*)\s*\{.*$/\1/ } @infile;
-    chomp @depends;
-
-    if (@depends) {
-	print "$target: @depends\n";
-    }
-
-    @depends2 = grep { s/^\s*include\s*\"\s*(.*)\s*\".*$/\1/ } @infile;
-    chomp @depends2;
-
-    if (@depends2) {
-	print "$target: @depends2\n";
-    }
+while (my $line = <>) {
+    $depends{$2}++ if $line =~ m/^\s*file\s*(["']?)(.*)\1/;
+    $depends{$1}++ if $line =~ m/^\s*include\s+"(.*)"/;
+}
+
+if (%depends) {
+    my @depends = keys %depends;
+    print "$target: @depends\n";
 }