diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 9528703b56..f266e2dd77 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -291,7 +291,6 @@ export STAGING_DIR
 export HOST_DIR
 export BINARIES_DIR
 export BASE_DIR
-export BUILD_DIR
 
 ################################################################################
 #
diff --git a/docs/manual/customize-rootfs.txt b/docs/manual/customize-rootfs.txt
index 158389c8a7..49a6b4b442 100644
--- a/docs/manual/customize-rootfs.txt
+++ b/docs/manual/customize-rootfs.txt
@@ -41,7 +41,6 @@ there are a few ways to customize the resulting target filesystem.
     - +BUILDROOT_CONFIG+: the path to the Buildroot .config file
     - +HOST_DIR+, +STAGING_DIR+, +TARGET_DIR+: see
       xref:generic-package-reference[]
-    - +BUILD_DIR+: the directory where packages are extracted and built
     - +BINARIES_DIR+: the place where all binary files (aka images) are
       stored
     - +BASE_DIR+: the base output directory
@@ -80,7 +79,7 @@ in one of these _post-image scripts_ will require special handling
 Just like for the _post-build scripts_ mentioned above, you also have
 access to the following environment variables from your _post-image
 scripts_: +BUILDROOT_CONFIG+, +HOST_DIR+, +STAGING_DIR+, +TARGET_DIR+,
-+BUILD_DIR+, +BINARIES_DIR+ and +BASE_DIR+.
++BINARIES_DIR+ and +BASE_DIR+.
 
 Additionally, each of the +BR2_ROOTFS_POST_BUILD_SCRIPT+ and
 +BR2_ROOTFS_POST_IMAGE_SCRIPT+ scripts will be passed the arguments