diff --git a/debian.master/variants b/debian.master/variants
deleted file mode 100644
index 3662a92b1ebe..000000000000
--- a/debian.master/variants
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
--wip
diff --git a/debian/rules.d/0-common-vars.mk b/debian/rules.d/0-common-vars.mk
index c38945163ae6..0db524ef0e42 100644
--- a/debian/rules.d/0-common-vars.mk
+++ b/debian/rules.d/0-common-vars.mk
@@ -19,12 +19,6 @@ release := $(patsubst %-$(revision),%,$(version))
 prev_fullver ?= $(shell dpkg-parsechangelog -l$(DEBIAN)/changelog -o1 -c1 -S version)
 prev_revision := $(lastword 0.0 $(subst -,$(space),$(prev_fullver)))
 
-# Get variants. Assume primary if debian/variants is not present.
-variants = --
-ifneq (,$(wildcard $(DEBIAN)/variants))
-	variants := $(shell cat $(DEBIAN)/variants)
-endif
-
 # Get upstream version info
 upstream_version := $(shell sed -n 's/^VERSION = \(.*\)$$/\1/p' Makefile)
 upstream_patchlevel := $(shell sed -n 's/^PATCHLEVEL = \(.*\)$$/\1/p' Makefile)
diff --git a/debian/rules.d/1-maintainer.mk b/debian/rules.d/1-maintainer.mk
index 9882dac7aa13..3d47c55cb71f 100644
--- a/debian/rules.d/1-maintainer.mk
+++ b/debian/rules.d/1-maintainer.mk
@@ -43,7 +43,6 @@ printenv:
 	@echo "prev_revision             = $(prev_revision)"
 	@echo "abinum                    = $(abinum)"
 	@echo "upstream_tag              = $(upstream_tag)"
-	@echo "variants                  = $(variants)"
 	@echo "flavours                  = $(flavours)"
 	@echo "bin_pkg_name              = $(bin_pkg_name)"
 	@echo "hdr_pkg_name              = $(hdrs_pkg_name)"