diff --git a/lib/event/subsystems/Makefile b/lib/event/subsystems/Makefile
index 1e87a0f32..7fe04d914 100644
--- a/lib/event/subsystems/Makefile
+++ b/lib/event/subsystems/Makefile
@@ -34,7 +34,8 @@
 SPDK_ROOT_DIR := $(abspath $(CURDIR)/../../..)
 include $(SPDK_ROOT_DIR)/mk/spdk.common.mk
 
-DIRS-y += bdev copy iscsi nbd net nvmf scsi vhost vmd
+DIRS-y += bdev copy iscsi nbd net nvmf scsi vmd
+DIRS-$(CONFIG_VHOST) += vhost
 
 .PHONY: all clean $(DIRS-y)