diff --git a/targets/pseudo/bootstrap-packages/Makefile b/targets/pseudo/bootstrap-packages/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..6523e88f84db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/targets/pseudo/bootstrap-packages/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
+#
+# Compensate (a bit) for the lack of per package makefiles or other means
+# of knowing what goes in each package in the base system.
+# We can derive some of the information we want from the makefiles that
+# set PACKAGE.
+
+all:
+.if ${.MAKE.LEVEL} > 0
+all: packages
+.endif
+
+PACKAGES?= ${.CURDIR:H:H}/packages
+
+packages: package-makefile.list
+	@${.CURDIR}/bootstrap-packages.sh PACKAGES=${PACKAGES} ${.ALLSRC}
+
+package-makefile.list:
+	@(cd ${SRCTOP} && \
+	find ${TOPS:U*bin etc lib*} -name 'Makefile' | \
+	xargs grep '^PACKAGE[[:space:]]*=' ) | \
+	sed 's/[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*/=/' > ${.TARGET}
+
diff --git a/targets/pseudo/bootstrap-packages/bootstrap-packages.sh b/targets/pseudo/bootstrap-packages/bootstrap-packages.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..a2fe250d68a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/targets/pseudo/bootstrap-packages/bootstrap-packages.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
+
+# Our input is the output of something like:
+#
+#	(cd ${SRCTOP} &&
+#	find *bin etc lib* -name Makefile |
+#	xargs grep '^PACKAGE[[:space:]]*=' )
+#
+# With some cleanup and looks like:
+#
+#	usr.bin/ofed/libibverbs/Makefile:PACKAGE=FreeBSD-rdma
+#	usr.bin/last/Makefile:PACKAGE=acct
+#	usr.bin/lastcomm/Makefile:PACKAGE=acct
+#	usr.bin/users/Makefile:PACKAGE=acct
+#	usr.bin/who/Makefile:PACKAGE=acct
+#	usr.sbin/ac/Makefile:PACKAGE=acct
+#	usr.sbin/accton/Makefile:PACKAGE=acct
+#	usr.sbin/lastlogin/Makefile:PACKAGE=acct
+#	..
+#
+# which we use to populate $PACKAGES/*/Makefile.depend
+# and $PACKAGES/Makefile.depend to make it easier to keep
+# Makefile.depend files throughout the tree up-to-date.
+#
+# The result is not ideal, as we do not (yet) take into account all
+# the MK_* knobs that can impact DIRDEPS.
+#
+
+Mydir=`dirname $0`
+
+while :
+do
+    case "$1" in
+    *=*) eval "$1"; shift;;
+    *) break;;
+    esac
+done
+
+to_reldir() {
+    sed "s,$SRCTOP/,,"
+}
+
+SRCTOP=${SRCTOP:-$(realpath $Mydir/../../..)}
+PACKAGES=${PACKAGES:-$(realpath $Mydir/../..)}
+case "$PACKAGES" in
+/*) ;;
+*) PACKAGES=$SRCTOP/$PACKAGES;;
+esac
+
+script_name=$(realpath $0 | to_reldir)
+
+start_depend() {
+    depfile=$1
+
+    mkdir -p ${depfile%/*}
+    cat <<EOF > $depfile
+# Generated by $script_name
+
+DIRDEPS= \\
+EOF
+}
+
+end_depend() {
+    depfile=$1
+
+    cat <<EOF >> $depfile
+
+.include <dirdeps.mk>
+EOF
+}
+
+start_depend $PACKAGES/Makefile.depend || exit 1
+sort -t= -k2 "$@" | sed 's,/Makefile:PACKAGE=, ,' |
+(
+    lpackage=
+    while read reldir package
+    do
+        case "$package" in \
+	lib?{LIB}) package=${reldir##*/};;
+	lib?{LIB:tl}) package=`echo ${reldir##*/} | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z'`;;
+	esac
+	if test "$package" != "$lpackage"; then \
+	    test -z "$lpackage" || end_depend $ddeps
+	    target=$PACKAGES/$package
+            ddeps=$target/Makefile.depend
+            start_depend $ddeps
+	    lpackage=$package
+	    echo "	$target \\"
+	fi
+	echo "	$reldir \\" >> $ddeps
+    done
+    end_depend $ddeps
+) | to_reldir >> $PACKAGES/Makefile.depend
+end_depend $PACKAGES/Makefile.depend