diff --git a/autogen.sh b/autogen.sh
index fb8d983f..020c365c 100755
--- a/autogen.sh
+++ b/autogen.sh
@@ -21,4 +21,13 @@ ${AUTOMAKE:-automake} -acf --foreign
 
 # Generate the translated man pages if the "po4a" tool is available.
 # This is *NOT* done by "autoreconf -fi" or when "make" is run.
-cd po4a && sh update-po
+#
+# Pass --no-po4a to this script to skip this step. It can be useful when
+# you know that po4a isn't available and don't want autogen.sh to exit
+# with non-zero exit status.
+if test "x$1" != "x--no-po4a"; then
+	cd po4a
+	sh update-po
+fi
+
+exit 0