diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index fd714324..f04c0e0d 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -2,7 +2,13 @@
 
 ## run tests after everything else
 
-SUBDIRS = lib src doc . checkmk tests
+if MAKE_DOCS
+OPTIONAL_DOC_TARGET = doc
+else
+OPTIONAL_DOC_TARGET =
+endif
+
+SUBDIRS = lib src $(OPTIONAL_DOC_TARGET) . checkmk tests
 
 ## FIXME: maybe we don't need this line
 
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index f6f4fa7f..b660b072 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 Planned Release Check 0.13.0
 
+* configure: optional build documentation
+  Issue #206 (GitHub)
+
 * missing <unistd.h> in some files
   Issue #196 and Issue #186 (GitHub)
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 47c36752..c4d439dd 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -72,6 +72,15 @@ AC_HELP_STRING([--enable-timeout-tests],
   *)   AC_MSG_ERROR(bad value ${enableval} for --enable-timeout-tests) ;;
 esac], [enable_timeout_tests=true ])
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(build-docs,
+AC_HELP_STRING([--enable-build-docs],
+           [turn on building documentation @<:@default=yes@:>@]),
+[case "${enableval}" in
+  yes) enable_build_docs=true ;;
+  no)  enable_build_docs=false ;;
+  *)   AC_MSG_ERROR(bad value ${enableval} for --enable-build-docs) ;;
+esac], [enable_build_docs=true ])
+
 AM_CONDITIONAL(NO_TIMEOUT_TESTS, test x"$enable_timeout_tests" = "xfalse")
 
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(subunit,
@@ -171,12 +180,19 @@ esac
 AC_CHECK_PROGS(GCOV, gcov, false)
 AC_CHECK_PROGS(LCOV, lcov, false)
 AC_CHECK_PROGS(GENHTML, genhtml, false)
-AC_CHECK_PROGS(TEX, tex, false)
-if test "$TEX" = "false"; then
-    # Make it [somewhat] clear to maintainers that tex is missing. Not an error
-    # though because 'make install' (which users need) does not build the docs
-    # anyway.
-    AC_MSG_WARN(tex not installed: cannot rebuild HTML documentation.)
+
+if test "xtrue" = x"$enable_build_docs"; then
+    AC_CHECK_PROGS(TEX, tex, false)
+    if test "$TEX" = "false"; then
+        # Make it [somewhat] clear to maintainers that tex is missing. Not an error
+        # though because 'make install' (which users need) does not build the docs
+        # anyway.
+        AC_MSG_WARN(tex not installed: cannot rebuild HTML documentation.)
+    fi
+
+    AM_CONDITIONAL(MAKE_DOCS, [test x"$TEX" != "xfalse"])
+else
+   AM_CONDITIONAL(MAKE_DOCS, [false])
 fi
 AC_CHECK_PROGS(FILTERDIFF, filterdiff, false)
 if test "$FILTERDIFF" = "false"; then
@@ -433,4 +449,11 @@ else
 fi
 echo "POSIX regular expressions ............ $result"
 
+if test "xtrue" = x"$enable_build_docs"; then
+    result="yes"
+else
+    result="no"
+fi
+echo "build docs ........................... $result"
+
 echo "=========================================="
diff --git a/travis.sh b/travis.sh
index 88fd01b8..47a9baf0 100644
--- a/travis.sh
+++ b/travis.sh
@@ -38,11 +38,11 @@ fi
 
 if [ "${USE_CMAKE}" = 'NO' ] ; then
    autoreconf -i || exit 1
-   ./configure ${EXTRA_ARGS} || exit 1
+   ./configure ${EXTRA_ARGS} --disable-build-docs || exit 1
    make || exit 1
 
-   if [ ! -f doc/version.texi ]; then
-      echo "version.texi not generated";
+   if [ -f doc/version.texi ]; then
+      echo "Documentation was generated (doc/version.texi), though disabled";
       exit 1;
    fi