.gitignore               | 1 +
 Documentation/include.mk | 3 +++
 Makefile.PL              | 8 +++++++-

diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7f4142ba7e03f5aad0a30dfb7563af83bbfa8e76..f7e4c5953e68b7f36866cb3e96f1a3f926070ceb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ *.html
 *.gz
 .*.cols
 .*.check
+.*.lexgrog
 /NEWS.html
 /NEWS.atom
 /NEWS
diff --git a/Documentation/include.mk b/Documentation/include.mk
index df6c17e03ede598caa872c58f80be9badbc170a9..79bf460d22cfbf3f14bc4768e5eeb06d895a1ef3 100644
--- a/Documentation/include.mk
+++ b/Documentation/include.mk
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ RSYNC = rsync
 RSYNC_DEST = public-inbox.org:/srv/public-inbox/
 AWK = awk
 MAN = man
+LEXGROG = lexgrog
 
 # this is "xml" on FreeBSD and maybe some other distros:
 XMLSTARLET = xmlstarlet
@@ -55,6 +56,8 @@ check_man = $(AWK) '{gsub(/\b./,"")}length>80{print;err=1}END{exit(err)}'\
 	>&2 && >$@
 
 check-man :: $(check_80)
+
+check-lexgrog :: $(check_lexgrog)
 
 all :: $(docs)
 
diff --git a/Makefile.PL b/Makefile.PL
index 9d0a361a46d881e4f556e8ba7c927e599e56ae7a..b2f3393daa83d0fe6c45b2169d846b9fb16fac4f 100644
--- a/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Makefile.PL
@@ -65,8 +65,12 @@ 		$t->{"Documentation/$m.html : $txt"} = [ "\$(txt2pre) <$txt" ];
 		$t->{".$m.cols : $m.$i"} = [
 			"\@echo CHECK80 $m.$i;".
 			"COLUMNS=80 \$(MAN) ./$m.$i | \$(check_man)" ];
+		$t->{".$m.lexgrog: $m.$i"} = [
+			"\@echo LEXGROG $m.$i;" .
+			"\$(LEXGROG) ./$m.$i >\$\@+ && mv \$\@+ \$@" ];
 	}
 	push @{$v->{check_80}}, map { ".$_.cols" } @$ary;
+	push @{$v->{check_lexgrog}}, map { ".$_.lexgrog" } @$ary;
 	my $manuals = $v->{"man$i"} = [ map { "$_.$i" } @$ary ];
 	push @{$v->{manuals}}, @$manuals;
 	push @{$v->{mantxt}}, map { "Documentation/$_.txt" } @$ary;
@@ -121,6 +125,8 @@ 	$mod =~ s/\.\w+\z//;
 	"lib/PublicInbox/$_" => "blib/man3/PublicInbox::$mod.\$(MAN3EXT)"
 } qw(Git.pm Import.pm WWW.pod SaPlugin/ListMirror.pod);
 my $warn_no_pod = @no_pod ? "\n\t\@echo W: missing .pod: @no_pod\n" : '';
+chomp(my $lexgrog = `which lexgrog 2>/dev/null`);
+my $check_lexgrog = $lexgrog ? 'check-lexgrog' : '';
 
 WriteMakefile(
 	NAME => 'PublicInbox', # n.b. camel-case is not our choice
@@ -184,7 +190,7 @@ $VARS
 -include Documentation/include.mk
 $TGTS
 
-check-man ::$warn_no_pod
+check-man :: $check_lexgrog$warn_no_pod
 
 # syntax checks are currently GNU make only:
 %.syntax :: %