diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 854657d1c..94daa13ea 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -20,8 +20,6 @@ compel/compel
 compel/compel-host-bin
 images/*.c
 images/*.h
-images/google/protobuf/*.c
-images/google/protobuf/*.h
 .gitid
 criu/criu
 criu/unittest/unittest
diff --git a/images/Makefile b/images/Makefile
index cb30a5126..6f310e553 100644
--- a/images/Makefile
+++ b/images/Makefile
@@ -92,8 +92,7 @@ makefile-deps := Makefile $(obj)/Makefile
 
 #
 # Generate descriptor.pb-c.c and descriptor.pb-c.h to compile opts.proto.
-PROTOBUF_DIR := images/google
-DESCRIPTOR_DIR := $(PROTOBUF_DIR)/protobuf
+DESCRIPTOR_DIR := images/google/protobuf
 GOOGLE_INCLUDE=$(shell pkg-config protobuf --variable=includedir)/google/protobuf
 $(DESCRIPTOR_DIR)/descriptor.pb-c.c: $(GOOGLE_INCLUDE)/descriptor.proto
 	$(Q) echo "Generating descriptor.pb-c.c"
@@ -102,7 +101,7 @@ $(DESCRIPTOR_DIR)/descriptor.pb-c.c: $(GOOGLE_INCLUDE)/descriptor.proto
 cleanup-y += $(DESCRIPTOR_DIR)/descriptor.pb-c.d
 
 submrproper:
-	$(Q) rm -rf $(PROTOBUF_DIR)
+	$(Q) rm -f $(DESCRIPTOR_DIR)/*
 .PHONY: submrproper
 mrproper: submrproper
 
diff --git a/images/google/protobuf/.gitignore b/images/google/protobuf/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..68359a786
--- /dev/null
+++ b/images/google/protobuf/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+*.c
+*.h