diff --git a/src/Makefile.in b/src/Makefile.in
index 8568645f8..350f9a905 100644
--- a/src/Makefile.in
+++ b/src/Makefile.in
@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ selfbuild:
 	-for i in lsp clos cmp tk; do test -d $$i && diff --exclude=\*.o $$i stage2/$$i; done | less
 
 .git/tags:
-	( cd $(srcdir)/../.git && test "x$(CTAGS)" != "x" && $(CTAGS) -f tags -R --langmap=c:+.d ../src ) || echo "tags generation failed, but this does not break the build."
+	( cd $(srcdir)/../.git && test "x$(CTAGS)" != "x" && $(CTAGS) -f tags -R --langmap=c:+.d ../src || false) || echo "tags generation failed, but this does not break the build."
 
 # Make sure to also include *.d files; and match DPP's idiosyncracies
 # like "@si::foo" and "@(defun si::foo".  This rule is allowed to fail