It doesn't even depend on ELOOP, it just depends on the libc, so let's claim a distinct config variable for this since we generally don't need this dependency. --- ./hostapd/Makefile.dist 2018-03-15 12:24:47.524745887 +0100 +++ ./hostapd/Makefile 2018-03-15 12:26:05.239539933 +0100 @@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ OBJS += ../src/utils/$(CONFIG_ELOOP).o OBJS_c += ../src/utils/$(CONFIG_ELOOP).o -ifeq ($(CONFIG_ELOOP), eloop) +ifdef CONFIG_NEED_LIBRT # Using glibc < 2.17 requires -lrt for clock_gettime() LIBS += -lrt LIBS_c += -lrt