diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index 5e78a7b86..f5587ec97 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import os
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import time
 
 sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../..'))
 # -- General configuration ----------------------------------------------------
@@ -56,8 +57,11 @@ htmlhelp_basename = '%sdoc' % project
 
 git_cmd = ["git", "log", "--pretty=format:'%ad, commit %h'", "--date=local",
            "-n1"]
-html_last_updated_fmt = subprocess.check_output(git_cmd,
-                                                stdin=subprocess.PIPE)
+try:
+    html_last_updated_fmt = subprocess.Popen(
+        git_cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0]
+except Exception:
+    html_last_updated_fmt = time.ctime()
 
 # Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
 # (source start file, target name, title, author, documentclass