diff --git a/docs/Makefile b/docs/Makefile
index 55637302d..c4fde481e 100644
--- a/docs/Makefile
+++ b/docs/Makefile
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ PAPEROPT_a4     = -D latex_paper_size=a4
 PAPEROPT_letter = -D latex_paper_size=letter
 ALLSPHINXOPTS   = -d $(BUILDDIR)/doctrees $(PAPEROPT_$(PAPER)) $(SPHINXOPTS) .
 
-.PHONY: help clean towncrier html dirhtml singlehtml pickle json htmlhelp qthelp devhelp epub latex latexpdf text man changes linkcheck doctest
+.PHONY: help clean html dirhtml singlehtml pickle json htmlhelp qthelp devhelp epub latex latexpdf text man changes linkcheck doctest
 
 help:
 	@echo "Please use \`make <target>' where <target> is one of"
@@ -51,38 +51,38 @@ clean:
 towncrier:
 	cd ../../; towncrier --draft |grep  'No significant changes.' || yes n | towncrier
 
-html: conf.py towncrier
+html: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b html $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/html
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The HTML pages are in $(BUILDDIR)/html."
 
-dirhtml: conf.py towncrier
+dirhtml: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b dirhtml $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/dirhtml
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The HTML pages are in $(BUILDDIR)/dirhtml."
 
-singlehtml: conf.py towncrier
+singlehtml: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b singlehtml $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/singlehtml
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The HTML page is in $(BUILDDIR)/singlehtml."
 
-pickle: conf.py towncrier
+pickle: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b pickle $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/pickle
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished; now you can process the pickle files."
 
-json: conf.py towncrier
+json: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b json $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/json
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished; now you can process the JSON files."
 
-htmlhelp: conf.py towncrier
+htmlhelp: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b htmlhelp $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/htmlhelp
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished; now you can run HTML Help Workshop with the" \
 	      ".hhp project file in $(BUILDDIR)/htmlhelp."
 
-qthelp: conf.py towncrier
+qthelp: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b qthelp $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/qthelp
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished; now you can run "qcollectiongenerator" with the" \
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ qthelp: conf.py towncrier
 	@echo "To view the help file:"
 	@echo "# assistant -collectionFile $(BUILDDIR)/qthelp/BuildbotTutorial.qhc"
 
-devhelp: conf.py towncrier
+devhelp: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b devhelp $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/devhelp
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished."
@@ -100,52 +100,52 @@ devhelp: conf.py towncrier
 	@echo "# ln -s $(BUILDDIR)/devhelp $$HOME/.local/share/devhelp/BuildbotTutorial"
 	@echo "# devhelp"
 
-epub: conf.py towncrier
+epub: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b epub $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/epub
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The epub file is in $(BUILDDIR)/epub."
 
-latex: conf.py towncrier
+latex: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b latex $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/latex
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished; the LaTeX files are in $(BUILDDIR)/latex."
 	@echo "Run \`make' in that directory to run these through (pdf)latex" \
 	      "(use \`make latexpdf' here to do that automatically)."
 
-latexpdf: conf.py towncrier
+latexpdf: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b latex $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/latex
 	@echo "Running LaTeX files through pdflatex..."
 	make -C $(BUILDDIR)/latex all-pdf
 	@echo "pdflatex finished; the PDF files are in $(BUILDDIR)/latex."
 
-text: conf.py towncrier
+text: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b text $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/text
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The text files are in $(BUILDDIR)/text."
 
-man: conf.py towncrier
+man: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b man $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/man
 	@echo
 	@echo "Build finished. The manual pages are in $(BUILDDIR)/man."
 
-changes: conf.py towncrier
+changes: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b changes $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/changes
 	@echo
 	@echo "The overview file is in $(BUILDDIR)/changes."
 
-linkcheck: conf.py towncrier
+linkcheck: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b linkcheck $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/linkcheck
 	@echo
 	@echo "Link check complete; look for any errors in the above output " \
 	      "or in $(BUILDDIR)/linkcheck/output.txt."
 
-spelling: conf.py towncrier
+spelling: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b spelling $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/spelling
 	@echo
 	@echo "Spelling check complete; look for any errors in the above output " \
 	      "or in $(BUILDDIR)/spelling/output.txt."
 
-doctest: conf.py towncrier
+doctest: conf.py
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) -b doctest $(ALLSPHINXOPTS) $(BUILDDIR)/doctest
 	@echo "Testing of doctests in the sources finished, look at the " \
 	      "results in $(BUILDDIR)/doctest/output.txt."