diff --git a/share/mk/bsd.init.mk b/share/mk/bsd.init.mk
index 3ad29cc422f..a7f90ebee11 100644
--- a/share/mk/bsd.init.mk
+++ b/share/mk/bsd.init.mk
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ __<bsd.init.mk>__:
 # this tells lib.mk and prog.mk to not actually build anything
 _SKIP_BUILD = not building at level 0
 .endif
-.if !empty(_SKIP_BUILD)
+.if ${.MAKE.LEVEL} > 0 && !empty(_SKIP_BUILD)
 .warning ${_SKIP_BUILD}
 .endif