diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 17ad236655..5600bd5503 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -746,9 +746,12 @@ guix-binary.%.tar.xz:
 	cp "$$tarball" "$@.tmp" ; mv "$@.tmp" "$@"
 
 
+# The dependency on doc-po-update is to generate the .pot files, which are not
+# checked in.
+dist: doc-po-update
+
 dist-hook: gen-ChangeLog gen-AUTHORS gen-tarball-version
 dist-hook: assert-no-store-file-names
-dist-hook: doc-po-update
 
 distcheck-hook: assert-binaries-available assert-final-inputs-self-contained