diff --git a/contrib/commandref_join.pl b/contrib/commandref_join.pl
index 61f67a9d8..2d259126d 100755
--- a/contrib/commandref_join.pl
+++ b/contrib/commandref_join.pl
@@ -65,16 +65,18 @@ foreach my $lang (@lang) {
     open(MOD, $mods{$mod}) || die("Cant open $mods{$mod}:$!\n");
     my $skip = 1;
     my $line = 0;
+    my $docCount = 0;
     while(my $l = <MOD>) {
       $line++;
-      if($l =~ m/^=begin html$suffix/) {
+      if($l =~ m/^=begin html$suffix$/) {
         $l = <MOD>;    # skip one line, to be able to repeat join+split
         $skip = 0; $line++;
-      } elsif($l =~ m/^=end html$suffix/) {
+      } elsif($l =~ m/^=end html$suffix$/) {
         $skip = 1;
       } elsif(!$skip) {
         # here we copy line by line from the module
         print OUT $l;
+        $docCount++;
         foreach $tag (TAGS) {
           my $ot = ($tagcount{$tag} ? $tagcount{$tag} : 0);
           $tagcount{$tag} +=()= ($l =~ /<$tag>/gi);
@@ -85,6 +87,7 @@ foreach my $lang (@lang) {
       }
     }
     close(MOD);
+    print "$mod: No document text found\n" if(!$suffix && !$docCount);
     foreach $tag (TAGS) {
       print("$lang $mods{$mod}: Unbalanced $tag ".
                 "($tagcount{$tag}, last line ok: $llwct{$tag})\n")