.gitignore               | 1 +
 Documentation/include.mk | 5 +++--

diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9eb97751cf1d090f5688b5120f5f51d81e35e719..bdb8cf15ec320e0432c28477fb3c8b7b0b6908b5 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ *.8
 *.html
 *.gz
 .*.cols
+.*.check
 /NEWS.html
 /NEWS.atom
 /NEWS
diff --git a/Documentation/include.mk b/Documentation/include.mk
index 651fdf30922b1f513b7c9de3afa17847af8db3ae..624f07f42e4330c3d7c6f6d227cfc14e43a88723 100644
--- a/Documentation/include.mk
+++ b/Documentation/include.mk
@@ -134,11 +134,12 @@ NEWS NEWS.atom NEWS.html : Documentation/include.mk
 	$(PERL) -I lib -w Documentation/mknews.perl $@ $(RELEASES)
 
 # check for internal API changes:
-check :: NEWS check-NEWS.atom NEWS.html
+check :: NEWS .NEWS.atom.check NEWS.html
 
-check-NEWS.atom: NEWS.atom
+.NEWS.atom.check: NEWS.atom
 	$(XMLSTARLET) val NEWS.atom || \
 		{ e=$$?; test $$e -eq 0 || test $$e -eq 127; }
+	>$@
 
 Documentation/%.html: Documentation/%.txt
 	$(txt2pre)