diff --git a/tools/checkwps/README b/tools/checkwps/README
index a94882fdff..7f6b6d6b4e 100644
--- a/tools/checkwps/README
+++ b/tools/checkwps/README
@@ -10,14 +10,12 @@ To compile
 
 Just run the ./buildall.sh script
 
-
 To remove all compiled files
 ----------------------------
 
 ./cleanall.sh
 
-
 To add a new target
 -------------------
 
-Add $target and $modelname from tools/configure to targets.txt
+No action necessary, list of targets is parsed out of the configure script
diff --git a/tools/checkwps/cleanall.sh b/tools/checkwps/cleanall.sh
index 4b3c72bd23..321c14ead2 100755
--- a/tools/checkwps/cleanall.sh
+++ b/tools/checkwps/cleanall.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@
 rootdir=`dirname $0`
 outdir=$rootdir/output
 
-make clean # make clean the build dir first
+if [ -f Makefile ] ; then
+  make clean # make clean the build dir first
+fi
 rm -f autoconf.h
 rm -f Makefile
 awk -f $rootdir/parse_configure.awk $rootdir/../configure | (