diff --git a/utils/makehelp.pl b/utils/makehelp.pl
index aa742a7ea..15ef1a2b1 100755
--- a/utils/makehelp.pl
+++ b/utils/makehelp.pl
@@ -4,22 +4,35 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 
 my %msg = ();
-my @start = ();
 my %reorder = (help=>-1);
 
+# We do not want every Makefile syntax error to break help completely,
+# so we just disable the kind of features where the syntax error occurs
+# In that case we store also the error message here
+my %brokenFeatures = ();
+
+my @blocks = ();
+my @plainCode = ();
+
 READ: while(<>) {
+  my $lnum = $.;
   if(m/^# HELP HEADER START/) {
+    my @start = ();
     while(<>) {
-      next READ if m/^# HELP HEADER END/;
+      do {
+        push @blocks, { kind=>'start', text=>\@start, line=>$lnum };
+        next READ
+      } if m/^# HELP HEADER END/;
       if(m/# (.*)/) {
         push @start, $1
       } else {
         die "$0: Invalid HELP HEADER section in Makefile!\n";
       }
     }
+    push @blocks, { kind=>'start', text=>\@start, line=>$lnum };
     next READ
   }
-  if(m/# HELP((?:\([^\(\)]+\))?):\s*(.*)/) {
+  if(m/^# HELP((?:\((?:[^\(\)]|\([^\(\)]+\))+\))?):\s*(.*)/) {
     my ($target, $message) = ($1, $2);
     if($target=~m/\((.*)\)/) {
       $target = $1;
@@ -29,13 +42,125 @@ READ: while(<>) {
       $line=~m/^([^:]+):/ or die "$0: HELP marker expects target but no target found!\n";
       $target = $1
     }
-    $msg{$target} .= $message
+    push @blocks, { kind=>'target', target=>$target, message=>$message, line=>$lnum };
+    next READ
+  }
+  if(m/^# HELPVAR\((.*)\)/) {
+    push @blocks, { kind=>'helpvar', content=>$1, line=>$lnum };
+    next READ;
+  }
+  push @plainCode, [$lnum, $_]
+}
+
+my %kindBlocks = ();
+for(@blocks) {
+  push @{$kindBlocks{$_->{kind}}}, $_
+}
+
+my @matchies = ();
+HELPVARS: {
+  for my $hv(@{$kindBlocks{helpvar}}) {
+    my $reVar = qr((?:\$\((?<name>[A-Z]+)(?:,(?<re>[^\(\)]+))?\)));
+    my $reVarNoGroups = qr((?:\$\((?:[A-Z]+)(?:,(?:[^\(\)]+))?\)));
+    my @parts = split /($reVarNoGroups)/, $hv->{content};
+    my %setvars = ();
+    my @reParts = ();
+    for my $p(@parts) {
+      if($p=~m#^$reVar$#) {
+        my $name = $+{name};
+        my $re = $+{re};
+        if(defined $re) {
+          if(exists $setvars{$name}) {
+            $brokenFeatures{helpvars} = "Makefile line $hv->{line}: Multiple definitions of variable $name found!";
+            last HELPVARS
+          }
+          $setvars{$name} = $re;
+          push @reParts, [1,qr((?<$name>$re))];
+        } else {
+          if(not exists $setvars{$name}) {
+            $brokenFeatures{helpvars} = "Makefile line $hv->{line}: Variable $name used without definition!";
+            last HELPVARS
+          }
+          push @reParts, [0,$name]; #qr((?:\k<$name>)); -- problem: cannot reference variable when not defined
+        }
+      } else {
+        push @reParts, [1,qr((?:\Q$p\E))];
+      }
+    }
+    my $reCol = qr((?:));
+    for my $r(@reParts) {
+      my ($isRe, $reg) = @$r;
+      if($isRe) {
+        $reCol = qr((?:$reCol$reg));
+      } else {
+        eval {
+        $reCol = qr((?:$reCol(?:\k<$reg>)));
+        };
+        if($@) {
+          $brokenFeatures{helpvars} = "Makefile line $hv->{line}: Variable $reg caused an internal error ($@)!";
+          last HELPVARS
+        }
+      }
+    }
+    push @matchies, $reCol
   }
 }
 
-print "$_\n" for @start;
-print "\n" if @start;
-for my $tar(sort {($reorder{$a}||0) <=> ($reorder{$b}||0) || $a cmp $b } keys %msg) {
-  print "$tar\n  $msg{$tar}\n\n"
+my %helpvars = ();
+
+for my $rowr(@plainCode) {
+  my ($lnum, $row) = @$rowr;
+  my @matches = ();
+  for my $re(@matchies) {
+    if($row=~m#^$re$#) {
+      my %h = %+;
+      push @matches, \%h
+    }
+  }
+  if(@matches>1) {
+    $brokenFeatures{helpvars} = "Makefile line $lnum: Multiple variable definitions match on row '$row'\n";
+  }
+  if(1==@matches) {
+    my %h = %{$matches[0]};
+    for my $k(keys %h) {
+      push @{$helpvars{$k}}, $h{$k}
+    }
+  }
+}
+
+my @start = ();
+@start = @{$kindBlocks{start}} if exists $kindBlocks{start};
+
+for my $tg(@{$kindBlocks{target}}) {
+  my $tgv = $tg->{target};
+  my @build = ();
+  $tgv=~s#\$\(([A-Z]+)(?:,[^\(\)]*)?\)#push @build, {name=>$1,elm=>$helpvars{$1}}; $1#ge;
+  unshift @build, $tg->{message};
+  $msg{$tgv} = \@build;
+}
+
+sub msgprinter {
+  my $el = shift;
+  if('HASH' eq ref $el) {
+    print "  Where $el->{name} is one of\n";
+    print "    $_\n" for @{$el->{elm}};
+    return
+  }
+  $el =~ s#(.{40,76})\s+#$1\n  #g;
+  print "  $el\n";
+}
+
+for(@start) {
+  print "$_\n" for @{$_->{text}}
+}
+print "\n" if @start;
+for my $tar(sort {($reorder{$a}||0) <=> ($reorder{$b}||0) || $a cmp $b } keys %msg) {
+  print "$tar\n";
+  msgprinter($_) for @{$msg{$tar}};
+  print "\n";
+}
+
+for my $k(keys %brokenFeatures) {
+  warn "\n!!!!!\nFailed to complete construct the help message from the Makefile.\nFeature '$k' disabled, because: $brokenFeatures{$k}\n\n";
 }