diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 12da35a7fee129da7d20573244bdc9db7449d2a7..3a263685182e8d7a106bb9897b3feeb0b988d3e5 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1531,6 +1531,8 @@ if(MAKEINFO)
                      ARGS ${TEX_DIR}/gmsh.texi WORKING_DIRECTORY ${TEX_DIR})
   add_custom_target(html DEPENDS ${TEX_DIR}/gmsh.html)
   install(FILES ${TEX_DIR}/gmsh.html DESTINATION ${GMSH_DOC} OPTIONAL)
+else(MAKEINFO)
+  add_custom_target(html COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E touch ${TEX_DIR}/gmsh.html)
 endif(MAKEINFO)
 
 find_program(TEXI2PDF texi2pdf)