diff --git a/core/config.mk b/core/config.mk
index 93a2d34..b43169f 100644
--- a/core/config.mk
+++ b/core/config.mk
@@ -31,6 +31,37 @@
 backslash := \a
 backslash := $(patsubst %a,%,$(backslash))
 
+# this turns off the suffix rules built into make
+.SUFFIXES:
+
+# this turns off the RCS / SCCS implicit rules of GNU Make
+% : RCS/%,v
+% : RCS/%
+% : %,v
+% : s.%
+% : SCCS/s.%
+
+# If a rule fails, delete $@.
+.DELETE_ON_ERROR:
+
+# Check for broken versions of make.
+ifndef KATI
+ifneq (1,$(strip $(shell expr $(MAKE_VERSION) \>= 3.81)))
+$(warning ********************************************************************************)
+$(warning *  You are using version $(MAKE_VERSION) of make.)
+$(warning *  Android can only be built by versions 3.81 and higher.)
+$(warning *  see https://source.android.com/source/download.html)
+$(warning ********************************************************************************)
+$(error stopping)
+endif
+endif
+
+# Used to force goals to build.  Only use for conditionally defined goals.
+.PHONY: FORCE
+FORCE:
+
+ORIGINAL_MAKECMDGOALS := $(MAKECMDGOALS)
+
 # Tell python not to spam the source tree with .pyc files.  This
 # only has an effect on python 2.6 and above.
 export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE := 1
@@ -810,4 +841,20 @@
     $(filter $(ANDROID_WARNING_ALLOWED_PROJECTS),$(1)/)
 endef
 
+# These goals don't need to collect and include Android.mks/CleanSpec.mks
+# in the source tree.
+dont_bother_goals := clean clobber dataclean installclean \
+    help out \
+    snod systemimage-nodeps \
+    stnod systemtarball-nodeps \
+    userdataimage-nodeps userdatatarball-nodeps \
+    cacheimage-nodeps \
+    bptimage-nodeps \
+    vendorimage-nodeps \
+    ramdisk-nodeps \
+    bootimage-nodeps \
+    recoveryimage-nodeps \
+    vbmetaimage-nodeps \
+    product-graph dump-products
+
 include $(BUILD_SYSTEM)/dumpvar.mk