diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index fcda1ad54982911f19a304d2e518be7e9d6abc65..0ec8dc94f2a931193e8a401a7c2ddbaf7b6235dd 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+2014-04-02  Benno Schulenberg  <bensberg@justemail.net>
+	* configure.ac, doc/Makefile.am: Try to build the info documentation
+	only when 'makeinfo' is available.  Patch partly by Mike Frysinger.
+
 2014-04-02  Mike Frysinger  <vapier@gentoo.org>
 	* doc/man/{,fr}/Makefile.am: Simplify the man rules still further.
 	* .gitignore: Add 'config.cache', created by './configure -C'.
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 49fdf85898b73f28451dbc1a2048a922ae7e5029..cf344be42572932fd4bc364cc7c2c5522bcee048 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -617,7 +617,7 @@ AS_IF([test "x$enable_libmagic" != "xno"], [
   AC_CHECK_LIB(magic, magic_open)
 ])
 
-# Check for groff html support
+# Check for groff html support.
 AC_MSG_CHECKING([for HTML support in groff])
 groff -t -mandoc -Thtml </dev/null >/dev/null
 if test $? -ne 0 ; then
@@ -631,6 +631,10 @@ else
 fi
 AM_CONDITIONAL(GROFF_HTML, test x$groff_html_support = xyes)
 
+# Check for the availability of makeinfo.
+AC_CHECK_PROG(haveit, makeinfo, yes, no)
+AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_MAKEINFO, test x$haveit = xyes)
+
 
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([
 Makefile
diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am
index 24f80951e4a56eaa0ec96332bb05dba7ec870eef..c197ceb05bf06476df0c88018efa7f11db9de5b3 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/Makefile.am
@@ -1,7 +1,11 @@
+SUBDIRS = man
+
+if HAVE_MAKEINFO
+SUBDIRS += texinfo
+endif
+
 if USE_COLOR
-SUBDIRS = man syntax texinfo
-else
-SUBDIRS = man texinfo
+SUBDIRS += syntax
 endif
 
 dist_html_DATA = faq.html