diff --git a/doc/Makefile b/doc/Makefile
index ffc600c8..9388998e 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile
+++ b/doc/Makefile
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 # You can set these variables from the command line.
 SPHINXOPTS    =
+SPHINXAPI_DOC = sphinx-apidoc 
 SPHINXBUILD   = sphinx-build
 PAPER         =
 BUILDDIR      = _build
@@ -41,11 +42,12 @@ help:
 clean:
 	-rm -rf $(BUILDDIR)/*
 
-CWD=$(shell sphinx-apidoc -f -o . ../GPy)
-all:
-	@echo api build: $(CWD).
 
 html:
+	$(SPHINXAPI_DOC) -f -o . ../GPy 
+	@echo
+	@echo "API doc finished."
+	@echo
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b html $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/html
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The HTML pages are in $(BUILDDIR)/html."