diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index ec6f9b4c..afd4ce39 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project('sshfs', 'c', version: '3.7.2',
-        meson_version: '>= 0.40',
+        meson_version: '>= 0.47',
         default_options: [ 'buildtype=debugoptimized' ])
 
 add_global_arguments('-D_REENTRANT', '-DHAVE_CONFIG_H',
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ if not cc.compiles(code, args: [ '-O0', '-Werror=unused-result' ])
 endif
 
 
-rst2man = find_program('rst2man', 'rst2man.py', required: false)
+rst2man = find_program('rst2man', 'rst2man.py', required: get_option('build-manual'))
 
 cfg = configuration_data()
 
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..7188e572
--- /dev/null
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+option('build-manual', type: 'feature', value: 'auto')