diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 30cb0bc8d6a..0df6ef10d98 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -150,6 +150,7 @@ __pycache__/
 # Generated by sage_setup.autogen
 /src/sage/ext/interpreters
 !/src/sage/ext/interpreters/meson.build
+!/src/sage/ext/interpreters/README
 
 # Generated Cython files
 *.so
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 53d2c689843..96d1ba62e94 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ sagelib-clean:
 	     rm -rf c_lib .cython_version cython_debug; \
 	     rm -rf build; find . -name '*.pyc' -o -name "*.so" | xargs rm -f; \
 	     rm -f $$(find . -name "*.pyx" | sed 's/\(.*\)[.]pyx$$/\1.c \1.cpp/'); \
-	     rm -rf sage/ext/interpreters) \
+	     cd sage/ext/interpreters/ && rm -f *.so *.c *.h *.py* *.pxd) \
 	    && (cd "$(SAGE_ROOT)/build/pkgs/sagelib/src/" && rm -rf build); \
 	fi
 
diff --git a/src/sage/ext/interpreters/README b/src/sage/ext/interpreters/README
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1e42d921e68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/sage/ext/interpreters/README
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+The files in this directory, except meson.build, are autogenerated by sage_setup.autogen