diff --git a/test/Makefile.local b/test/Makefile.local
index 2b18bdb9..987441f0 100644
--- a/test/Makefile.local
+++ b/test/Makefile.local
@@ -42,10 +42,18 @@ else
 	ln -sf /bin/false $@
 endif
 
+$(dir)/have-man: Makefile.config
+ifeq ($(HAVE_SPHINX)$(HAVE_RST2MAN),00)
+	ln -sf /bin/false $@
+else
+	ln -sf /bin/true $@
+endif
+
 .PHONY: test check
 
 TEST_BINARIES=$(dir)/arg-test \
 	      $(dir)/have-compact \
+	      $(dir)/have-man \
 	      $(dir)/hex-xcode \
 	      $(dir)/random-corpus \
 	      $(dir)/parse-time \
diff --git a/test/T010-help-test.sh b/test/T010-help-test.sh
index f7df725e..77410bc5 100755
--- a/test/T010-help-test.sh
+++ b/test/T010-help-test.sh
@@ -4,9 +4,17 @@ test_description="online help"
 . ./test-lib.sh
 
 test_expect_success 'notmuch --help' 'notmuch --help'
-test_expect_success 'notmuch --help tag' 'notmuch --help tag'
 test_expect_success 'notmuch help' 'notmuch help'
-test_expect_success 'notmuch help tag' 'notmuch help tag'
 test_expect_success 'notmuch --version' 'notmuch --version'
 
+if ${TEST_DIRECTORY}/have-man; then
+    test_expect_success 'notmuch --help tag' 'notmuch --help tag'
+    test_expect_success 'notmuch help tag' 'notmuch help tag'
+else
+    test_expect_success 'notmuch --help tag (man pages not available)' \
+	'test_must_fail notmuch --help tag'
+    test_expect_success 'notmuch help tag (man pages not available)' \
+	'test_must_fail notmuch help tag'
+fi
+
 test_done