diff --git a/tools/cmake/utilities.cmake b/tools/cmake/utilities.cmake
index 9584098dcfa..a40193ebab1 100644
--- a/tools/cmake/utilities.cmake
+++ b/tools/cmake/utilities.cmake
@@ -231,16 +231,23 @@ function(preprocess_linker_file cmake_target script_in output_var preserve_suffi
     # Keep comments (-C): historical behavior for cmakev1 linker scripts. It was
     # previously hardcoded in linker_script_preprocessor.cmake, which now leaves
     # comment handling to the caller.
+    # Ask the preprocessor to emit all transitive #include dependencies. Without
+    # a depfile, CMake only knows about script_in and sdkconfig.h, so changes to
+    # files such as ld.common leave script_out stale.
+    set(depfile "${script_out}.d")
+    set(depfile_flags "-MD -MF \"${depfile}\" -MT \"${script_out}\"")
+
     add_custom_command(
         OUTPUT ${script_out}
         COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND}
             "-DCC=${CMAKE_C_COMPILER}"
             "-DSOURCE=${script_in}"
             "-DTARGET=${script_out}"
-            "-DCFLAGS=-C -I\"${config_dir}\" ${extra_cflags}"
+            "-DCFLAGS=-C -I\"${config_dir}\" ${depfile_flags} ${extra_cflags}"
             -P "${linker_script_generator}"
         MAIN_DEPENDENCY ${script_in}
         DEPENDS ${sdkconfig_header}
+        DEPFILE "${depfile}"
         COMMENT "Preprocessing linker script ${script_in} -> ${script_out}"
         VERBATIM)
 
diff --git a/tools/test_build_system/test_rebuild.py b/tools/test_build_system/test_rebuild.py
index c6d4cf52904..1a3fa8983c5 100644
--- a/tools/test_build_system/test_rebuild.py
+++ b/tools/test_build_system/test_rebuild.py
@@ -139,6 +139,14 @@ def test_rebuild_linker(idf_py: IdfPyFunc) -> None:
     (idf_path / 'components/esp_system/ld/esp32/memory.ld.in').touch()
     rebuild_and_check(idf_py, APP_BINS, BOOTLOADER_BINS + PARTITION_BIN)
 
+    logging.info('Updating an included ld file should preprocess the scripts and re-link only the app')
+    (idf_path / 'components/esp_system/ld/ld.common').touch()
+    preprocessed_scripts = [
+        'build/esp-idf/esp_system/ld/memory.ld',
+        'build/esp-idf/esp_system/ld/sections.ld.in',
+    ]
+    rebuild_and_check(idf_py, APP_BINS + preprocessed_scripts, BOOTLOADER_BINS + PARTITION_BIN)
+
     logging.info('Updating fragment file should only re-link the app')
     (idf_path / 'components/esp_common/common.lf').touch()
     rebuild_and_check(idf_py, APP_BINS, BOOTLOADER_BINS + PARTITION_BIN)