diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 3eb0f8eff..f9716538e 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2021-09-15  G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
+
+	* Makefile.am: Add `.DELETE_ON_ERROR` special target; both GNU
+	and FreeBSD make(1)s support it so maybe it will be portable
+	enough.  This avoids, among other problems, a target appearing
+	falsely up-to-date (often as an empty file) when the troff
+	process generating it experiences an assertion failure.
+
 2021-09-12  G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
 
 	Since June 1991 if not earlier, groff (technically, the refer,
diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 9aea88945..bbbe5f6fe 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -719,6 +719,8 @@ BUILT_SOURCES += defs.h
 # Force generation of test-groff even though we don't ship it.
 BUILT_SOURCES += test-groff
 
+.DELETE_ON_ERROR:
+
 # if there is a name prefix we install the man pages by hand
 all: generate_man_files
 install-data-hook: install-prefix-man