diff --git a/.github/workflows/contrib.yml b/.github/workflows/contrib.yml
index 4c328fdc3..d84c99da6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/contrib.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/contrib.yml
@@ -21,4 +21,4 @@ jobs:
         make dev/poll/poll
     - name: Compile dev/hpack
       run: |
-        make -C dev/hpack
+        make dev/hpack/decode dev/hpack/gen-enc dev/hpack/gen-rht
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 25a719d4c..452ab8d4d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -932,6 +932,9 @@ contrib/halog/halog:
 dev/flags/flags: dev/flags/flags.o
 	$(cmd_LD) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $^ $(LDOPTS)
 
+dev/hpack/%: dev/hpack/%.o
+	$(cmd_LD) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $^ $(LDOPTS)
+
 dev/poll/poll:
 	$(Q)$(MAKE) -C dev/poll poll CC='$(cmd_CC)' OPTIMIZE='$(COPTS)'
 
@@ -996,6 +999,7 @@ clean:
 	$(Q)rm -f haproxy-$(VERSION) haproxy-$(VERSION)$(SUBVERS)$(EXTRAVERSION) nohup.out gmon.out
 	$(Q)rm -f {dev,contrib}/*/*.[oas] {dev,contrib}/*/*/*.[oas] {dev,contrib}/*/*/*/*.[oas]
 	$(Q)rm -f contrib/halog/halog dev/flags/flags dev/poll/poll dev/tcploop/tcploop
+	$(Q)rm -f dev/hpack/decode dev/hpack/gen-enc dev/hpack/gen-rht
 
 tags:
 	$(Q)find src include \( -name '*.c' -o -name '*.h' \) -print0 | \
diff --git a/dev/hpack/Makefile b/dev/hpack/Makefile
deleted file mode 100644
index 1c6448b51..000000000
--- a/dev/hpack/Makefile
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-CFLAGS = -O2 -Wall -g -I../../include -fwrapv -fno-strict-aliasing
-OBJS = gen-rht gen-enc decode
-
-all: $(OBJS)
-
-%: %.c
-
-clean:
-	-rm -vf $(OBJS) *.o *.a *~
diff --git a/dev/hpack/README b/dev/hpack/README
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d7258b520
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/hpack/README
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+This needs to be built from the top makefile, for example :
+
+  make dev/hpack/{decode,gen-enc,gen-rht}
+