diff --git a/man/html.in b/man/html.in
index bc9a668c23..c09d300d6f 100755
--- a/man/html.in
+++ b/man/html.in
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ if [ -z "$1" ]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
+# make sure the rules have been regenrated (in case man/update-man-rules was just run)
+ninja -C "@BUILD_ROOT@" version.h
+
 target="man/$1.html"
 ninja -C "@BUILD_ROOT@" "$target"
 set -x
diff --git a/man/man.in b/man/man.in
index 75680b860c..812c6767fc 100755
--- a/man/man.in
+++ b/man/man.in
@@ -6,6 +6,9 @@ if [ -z "$1" ]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
+# make sure the rules have been regenrated (in case man/update-man-rules was just run)
+ninja -C "@BUILD_ROOT@" version.h
+
 page="$(echo "$1" | sed 's/\./\\./')"
 target=$(ninja -C "@BUILD_ROOT@" -t query man/man | grep -E -m1 "man/$page\.[0-9]$" | awk '{print $2}')
 if [ -z "$target" ]; then