diff --git a/mk/spdk.lib_deps.mk b/mk/spdk.lib_deps.mk
index 71213815d..6c8e827af 100644
--- a/mk/spdk.lib_deps.mk
+++ b/mk/spdk.lib_deps.mk
@@ -130,15 +130,21 @@ DEPDIRS-bdev_virtio := $(BDEV_DEPS_CONF_THREAD) virtio
 
 # module/event
 # module/event/app
-DEPDIRS-app_rpc := event $(JSON_LIBS) thread util
+DEPDIRS-app_rpc := log util thread event $(JSON_LIBS)
 
-#module/event/subsystems
-DEPDIRS-event_bdev := bdev event
+# module/event/subsystems
+# These depdirs include subsystem interdependencies which
+# are not related to symbols, but are defined directly in
+# the SPDK event subsystem code.
 DEPDIRS-event_copy := copy event
-DEPDIRS-event_iscsi := event iscsi
-DEPDIRS-event_nbd := event nbd
 DEPDIRS-event_net := sock net event
-DEPDIRS-event_nvmf := $(BDEV_DEPS_CONF_THREAD) event nvme nvmf
-DEPDIRS-event_scsi := event scsi
-DEPDIRS-event_vhost := event vhost
-DEPDIRS-event_vmd := conf vmd event
+DEPDIRS-event_vmd := vmd conf $(JSON_LIBS) event
+
+DEPDIRS-event_bdev := bdev event event_copy event_vmd
+
+DEPDIRS-event_nbd := event nbd event_bdev
+DEPDIRS-event_nvmf := $(BDEV_DEPS_CONF_THREAD) event nvme nvmf event_bdev
+DEPDIRS-event_scsi := event scsi event_bdev
+
+DEPDIRS-event_iscsi := event iscsi event_scsi
+DEPDIRS-event_vhost := event vhost event_scsi
diff --git a/module/event/subsystems/Makefile b/module/event/subsystems/Makefile
index d6b2c7614..d29b33f0e 100644
--- a/module/event/subsystems/Makefile
+++ b/module/event/subsystems/Makefile
@@ -42,6 +42,17 @@ endif
 
 DIRS-$(CONFIG_VHOST) += vhost
 
+# These dependencies are not based specifically on symbols, but rather
+# the subsystem dependency tree defined within the event subsystem C files
+# themselves. Should that tree change, these dependencies should change
+# accordingly.
+DEPDIRS-bdev := copy vmd
+DEPDIRS-iscsi := scsi
+DEPDIRS-nbd := bdev
+DEPDIRS-nvmf := bdev
+DEPDIRS-scsi := bdev
+DEPDIRS-vhost := scsi
+
 .PHONY: all clean $(DIRS-y)
 
 all: $(DIRS-y)