diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index 8ab9cb168..8de7f4415 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 import os
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import warnings
 
 # If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
 # add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
@@ -160,10 +161,15 @@ html_static_path = []
 # If not '', a 'Last updated on:' timestamp is inserted at every page bottom,
 # using the given strftime format.
 #html_last_updated_fmt = '%b %d, %Y'
+
 git_cmd = ["git", "log", "--pretty=format:'%ad, commit %h'", "--date=local",
            "-n1"]
-html_last_updated_fmt = subprocess.Popen(git_cmd,
-                                         stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0]
+try:
+    html_last_updated_fmt = subprocess.Popen(
+        git_cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0]
+except Exception:
+    warnings.warn('Cannot get last updated time from git repository. '
+                  'Not setting "html_last_updated_fmt".')
 
 # If true, SmartyPants will be used to convert quotes and dashes to
 # typographically correct entities.