diff --git a/common.rules b/common.rules
index 19c5307bdc5..97e7507d998 100644
--- a/common.rules
+++ b/common.rules
@@ -1,25 +1,27 @@
 # Common build rules, used by the sub modules and their module.mk files
 
-# Convenience library target
-$(MODULE)/lib$(MODULE).a: $(MODULE_OBJS)
-	-$(RM) $@
-	$(AR) $@ $+
-	$(RANLIB) $@ 
-
 # Clean target, removes all object files. This looks a bit hackish, as we have to
 # copy the content of MODULE_OBJS to another unique variable (the next module.mk
 # will overwrite it after all). The same for the libMODULE.a library file.
 MODULE_OBJS-$(MODULE) := $(MODULE_OBJS)
-MODULE_LIB-$(MODULE) := $(MODULE)/lib$(MODULE).a
+MODULE_LIB-$(MODULE) := $(MODULE)/$(PLUGIN_PREFIX)$(MODULE)$(PLUGIN_SUFFIX)
 clean: clean-$(MODULE)
 clean-$(MODULE): clean-% :
 	-$(RM) $(MODULE_OBJS-$*) $(MODULE_LIB-$*)
 
+# Convenience library target
+$(MODULE_LIB-$(MODULE)): $(MODULE_OBJS)
+	-$(RM) $@
+	$(AR) $@ $+
+	$(RANLIB) $@ 
+
 
 # Pseudo target for comfort, allows for "make common", "make gui" etc.
-$(MODULE): $(MODULE_OBJS)
+$(MODULE): $(MODULE_LIB-$(MODULE))
 
-# Add convenience library to main OBJS list
-OBJS += $(MODULE)/lib$(MODULE).a
+ifdef STATIC_PLUGINS
+# Add static plugin object files to the main OBJS list
+OBJS += $(MODULE_LIB-$(MODULE))
+endif
 
 .PHONY: clean-$(MODULE) $(MODULE)