diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 41a802ee32a883a4379f8c7c5aa569ea871c7f62..6652ebbdc40e5f50bd74cf185771250559ca56e2 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -52,6 +52,9 @@ PROJECTFILE = $(or $(wildcard project*.cpp), nomain.cpp)
 PARTIAL_SUBMITFILE = partialsubmit.tar.gz
 FULL_SUBMITFILE = fullsubmit.tar.gz
 
+# name of the perf data file, only used by the clean target
+PERF_FILE = perf.data*
+
 #Default Flags (would prefer -std=c++17 but Mac/Xcode/Clang doesn't support)
 CXXFLAGS = -std=c++1z -Wconversion -Wall -Werror -Wextra -pedantic 
 
@@ -110,7 +113,7 @@ alltests: clean $(TESTS)
 
 # make clean - remove .o files, executables, tarball
 clean:
-	rm -f $(OBJECTS) $(EXECUTABLE) $(DEBUG) $(TESTS) $(PARTIAL_SUBMITFILE) $(FULL_SUBMITFILE)
+	rm -f $(OBJECTS) $(EXECUTABLE) $(DEBUG) $(TESTS) $(PARTIAL_SUBMITFILE) $(FULL_SUBMITFILE) $(PERF_FILE)
 	rm -Rf *.dSYM
 
 # make partialsubmit.tar.gz - cleans, runs dos2unix, creates tarball omitting test cases