diff --git a/tools/build/depend-cleanup.sh b/tools/build/depend-cleanup.sh
index 81acf517f9d770..8aee1d0e9e71f1 100755
--- a/tools/build/depend-cleanup.sh
+++ b/tools/build/depend-cleanup.sh
@@ -233,7 +233,7 @@ clean_dep   lib/libcrypt crypt-sha256 c
 clean_dep   lib/libcrypt crypt-sha512 c
 
 # 20241213  b55f5e1c4ae3  jemalloc: Move generated jemalloc.3 into lib/libc tree
-if [ -e "$OBJTOP"/lib/libc/jemalloc.3 ]; then
+if [ -h "$OBJTOP"/lib/libc/jemalloc.3 ]; then
 	# Have to cleanup the jemalloc.3 in the obj tree since make gets
 	# confused and won't use the one in lib/libc/malloc/jemalloc/jemalloc.3
 	echo "Removing stale jemalloc.3 object"