diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 4b291047a6..fa40572480 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ Changes in version 0.2.2.10-alpha - 2010-??-??
       circuits now only differ from fast ones in that they can use nodes
       not marked with the Fast flag.
 
+  o Minor features:
+    - Allow disabling building of the manpages. This speeds up the
+      build considerably.
+
   o Minor bugfixes:
     - Fix a memleak in the EXTENDCIRCUIT logic. Spotted by coverity.
       Bugfix on 0.2.2.9-alpha.
@@ -31,6 +35,8 @@ Changes in version 0.2.2.10-alpha - 2010-??-??
     - Fix some urls in the exit notice file and make it XHTML1.1 strict
       compliant. Based on a patch from Christian Kujau.
     - Don't use sed in asciidoc-helper anymore.
+    - Make the build process fail if asciidoc cannot be found, and
+      building with asciidoc isn't disabled.
 
 Changes in version 0.2.2.9-alpha - 2010-02-22
   o Directory authority changes:
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index e045c08b35..6e73a2aad8 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -49,6 +49,15 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE(transparent,
         *) AC_MSG_ERROR(bad value for --enable-transparent) ;;
       esac], [transparent=true])
 
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(asciidoc,
+     AS_HELP_STRING(--disable-asciidoc, don't use asciidoc (disables building of manpages)),
+     [case "${enableval}" in
+        yes) asciidoc=true ;;
+        no)  asciidoc=false ;;
+        *) AC_MSG_ERROR(bad value for --disable-asciidoc) ;;
+      esac], [asciidoc=true])
+
+
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(threads,
      AS_HELP_STRING(--disable-threads, disable multi-threading support))
 
@@ -97,6 +106,20 @@ AC_CHECK_PROG([SED],[sed],[sed],[/bin/false])
 dnl check for asciidoc and a2x
 AC_PATH_PROG([ASCIIDOC], [asciidoc], none)
 AC_PATH_PROG([A2X], [a2x], none)
+AC_PATH_PROG([XSLTPROC], [xsltproc], none)
+if test x$asciidoc = xtrue ; then
+   if test x$ASCIIDOC = xnone ; then
+       AC_MSG_ERROR("Couldn't find asciidoc. reconfigure with --disable-asciidoc to build without asciidoc.")
+   fi
+   if test x$A2X = xnone ; then
+       AC_MSG_ERROR("Couldn't find a2x. reconfigure with --disable-asciidoc to build without a2x.")
+   fi
+   if test x$XSLTPROC = xnone ; then
+       AC_MSG_ERROR("Couldn't find xsltproc. reconfigure with --disable-asciidoc to build without xsltproc.")
+   fi
+fi
+
+AM_CONDITIONAL(USE_ASCIIDOC, test x$asciidoc = xtrue)
 
 AC_PATH_PROG([SHA1SUM], [sha1sum], none)
 AC_PATH_PROG([OPENSSL], [openssl], none)
diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am
index dbc44f0fbf..e7edb0476b 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/Makefile.am
@@ -13,7 +13,11 @@
 # part of the source distribution, so that people without asciidoc can
 # just use the .1 and .html files.
 
+if USE_ASCIIDOC
 asciidoc_files = tor tor-gencert tor-resolve torify
+else
+asciidoc_files =
+endif
 
 html_in = $(asciidoc_files:=.html.in)
 
diff --git a/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh b/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh
index 25b438cd81..d24b31918c 100755
--- a/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh
+++ b/doc/asciidoc-helper.sh
@@ -17,41 +17,21 @@ output=$3
 if [ "$1" = "html" ]; then
     input=${output%%.html.in}.1.txt
     base=${output%%.html.in}
-    if [ "$2" != none ]; then
-      "$2" -d manpage -o $output $input;
-    else
-      echo "==================================";
-      echo;
-      echo "The manpage in html form for $base will ";
-      echo "NOT be available, because asciidoc doesn't appear to be ";
-      echo "installed!";
-      echo;
-      echo "==================================";
-    fi
+    "$2" -d manpage -o $output $input;
 elif [ "$1" = "man" ]; then
     input=${output%%.1.in}.1.txt
     base=${output%%.1.in}
     
-    if test "$2" != none; then
-      if $2 -f manpage $input; then
-        mv $base.1 $output;
-      else
-        echo "==================================";
-        echo;
-        echo "a2x is installed, but some required docbook support files are";
-        echo "missing. Please install docbook-xsl and docbook-xml (Debian)";
-        echo "or similar.";
-        echo;
-        echo "==================================";
-      fi;
+    if "$2" -f manpage $input; then
+      mv $base.1 $output;
     else
       echo "==================================";
       echo;
-      echo "The manpage for $base will NOT be ";
-      echo "available, because a2x doesn't appear to be installed!";
+      echo "a2x is installed, but some required docbook support files are";
+      echo "missing. Please install docbook-xsl and docbook-xml (Debian)";
+      echo "or similar.";
       echo;
       echo "==================================";
+      exit 1;
     fi
 fi
-
-touch $output; \