diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index a5a3954ed2..6e4a81438a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -107,7 +107,9 @@ if(BUILD_RTLIB)
       add_dependencies(dyninstAPI-static DyninstRT)
     endif()
   endif()
-  add_dependencies(DyninstRT boost)
+  if(TARGET boost)
+    add_dependencies(DyninstRT boost)
+  endif()
 
   install(SCRIPT "${RT_BINARY_DIR}/cmake_install.cmake")
 
diff --git a/cmake/shared.cmake b/cmake/shared.cmake
index 0e74452648..5254e7b625 100644
--- a/cmake/shared.cmake
+++ b/cmake/shared.cmake
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@ set(ALL_DYNINST_TARGETS "" CACHE INTERNAL "")
 function (dyninst_library target)
   add_library (${target} ${SRC_LIST})
   # add boost as a universal dependencies for all sub libraries
-  add_dependencies (${target} boost)
+  if(TARGET boost)
+    add_dependencies (${target} boost)
+  endif()
   target_link_private_libraries (${target} ${ARGN})
   FILE (GLOB headers "h/*.h" "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/h/*.h")
   set (ACTUAL_TARGETS ${target})