diff --git a/CHANGES/v2.3.md b/CHANGES/v2.3.md
index bb4397bbe080e52dc76e25d365925c57ba294c75..ec7d498deed41aaf64eea5ec0553158f703ac71d 100644
--- a/CHANGES/v2.3.md
+++ b/CHANGES/v2.3.md
@@ -220,5 +220,6 @@ For developers:
 
 For developers:
 - Doxygen on travis-ci has been updated to 1.8.14
+- `make clean` now correctly removes the `src/lib/plumed` executable.
 
 
diff --git a/src/lib/Makefile b/src/lib/Makefile
index df8bb648305df2e3056b4615d3fbb9482b9c5ff5..008b6e944b7ec19edd604d178ffbc2c63b8dfd80 100644
--- a/src/lib/Makefile
+++ b/src/lib/Makefile
@@ -518,8 +518,7 @@ endif
 .PHONY: clean dirslinks
 clean:
 	rm -f $(CLEANLIST)
-	rm -f $(PLUMED_MAIN_STATIC) $(PLUMED_MAIN_SHARED) $(PLUMED_MAIN_RUNTIME)
-	rm -f Plumed.inc* plumed-* Plumed.cmake*
+	rm -f plumed Plumed.inc* plumed-* Plumed.cmake*
 # this is not necessary, I leave it here to remove spurious plumed.vim files generated with
 # the first version of plumed.vim syntax file:
 	rm -f plumed.vim