diff --git a/doc/meson.build b/doc/meson.build
index d3a5ad12d..067a03e5c 100644
--- a/doc/meson.build
+++ b/doc/meson.build
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 install_man(['mpd.1', 'mpd.conf.5'])
 
-sphinx = find_program('sphinx-build')
+sphinx = find_program('sphinx-build', required: get_option('documentation'))
+if not sphinx.found()
+  subdir_done()
+endif
+
 sphinx_output = custom_target(
   'HTML documentation',
   output: 'html',
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index f01e078de..c245c4562 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -543,9 +543,7 @@ install_data(
   install_dir: join_paths(get_option('datadir'), 'doc', meson.project_name()),
 )
 
-if get_option('documentation')
-  subdir('doc')
-endif
+subdir('doc')
 
 if get_option('test')
   subdir('test')
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 446fadccd..750120208 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-option('documentation', type: 'boolean', value: false, description: 'Build documentation')
+option('documentation', type: 'feature', description: 'Build documentation')
 
 option('test', type: 'boolean', value: false, description: 'Build the unit tests and debug programs')