diff --git a/docs/devhelp/Makefile.am b/docs/devhelp/Makefile.am
index a98b0a5ad5..abbfb5e65d 100644
--- a/docs/devhelp/Makefile.am
+++ b/docs/devhelp/Makefile.am
@@ -1,19 +1,24 @@
 EXTRA_DIST = html2xml.py
 
-all-am: devhelp
+CLEANFILES = *.devhelp
+devhelp_files = \
+	gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp \
+	gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp
 
-devhelp: gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp
+all-am: $(devhelp_files)
 
-gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp:
+devhelp:
 	cd ../gst && make
 	$(PYTHON) ./html2xml.py ../gst/html
-	sed 's@base=""@base="@HTML_DIR@/gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@"@g' html.devhelp > gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp
-	perl -i -p -e 's/name="html"/name="gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@"/' gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp
+	sed 's@base=""@base="@HTML_DIR@/gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@"@g' html.devhelp > gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp && \
+	perl -i -p -e 's/name="html"/name="gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@"/' gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp && \
 	rm html.devhelp
-
-gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp:
 	cd ../libs && make
 	$(PYTHON) ./html2xml.py ../libs/html
-	sed 's@base=""@base="@HTML_DIR@/gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@"@g' html.devhelp > gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp
-	perl -i -p -e 's/name="html"/name="gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@"/' gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp
+	sed 's@base=""@base="@HTML_DIR@/gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@"@g' html.devhelp > gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp && \
+	perl -i -p -e 's/name="html"/name="gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@"/' gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp && \
 	rm html.devhelp
+
+gstreamer-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp: devhelp
+gstreamer-libs-@GST_MAJORMINOR@.devhelp: devhelp
+