diff --git a/README-maintainer b/README-maintainer
index aaa0a61c..3f85a684 100644
--- a/README-maintainer
+++ b/README-maintainer
@@ -4,17 +4,17 @@ ROUTINE DEVELOPMENT
 
 Default:
 
-./configure CXX="g++ --std=c++14" --enable-werror --enable-doc-maintenance
+./configure CXX="g++ --std=c++14" --enable-werror --enable-maintainer-mode
 
 Debugging:
 
 ./configure CXX="g++ --std=c++14" CFLAGS="-g" CXXFLAGS="-g" \
-   --enable-werror --disable-shared
+   --enable-werror --disable-shared --enable-maintainer-mode
 
 Profiling:
 
 ./configure CXX="g++ --std=c++14" CFLAGS="-g -pg" CXXFLAGS="-g -pg" \
-   LDFLAGS="-pg" --enable-werror --disable-shared
+   LDFLAGS="-pg" --enable-werror --disable-shared --enable-maintainer-mode
 
 Then run `gprof gmon.out`. Note that gmon.out is not cumulative.
 
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Memory checks:
    CXXFLAGS="-fsanitize=address -fsanitize=undefined -g" \
    LDFLAGS="-fsanitize=address -fsanitize=undefined" \
    CC=clang CXX="clang++ --std=c++14" \
-   --enable-werror --disable-shared
+   --enable-werror --disable-shared --enable-maintainer-mode
 
 
 CHECKING DOCS ON readthedocs
diff --git a/autoconf.mk.in b/autoconf.mk.in
index 34a19801..34ed5c50 100644
--- a/autoconf.mk.in
+++ b/autoconf.mk.in
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ LIBTOOL=@LIBTOOL@
 USE_CRYPTO_NATIVE=@USE_CRYPTO_NATIVE@
 USE_CRYPTO_OPENSSL=@USE_CRYPTO_OPENSSL@
 USE_CRYPTO_GNUTLS=@USE_CRYPTO_GNUTLS@
+MAINTAINER_MODE=@MAINTAINER_MODE@
 SPHINX=@SPHINX@
 BUILD_HTML=@BUILD_HTML@
 BUILD_PDF=@BUILD_PDF@
diff --git a/autofiles.sums b/autofiles.sums
index 0190d135..fc53cd2c 100644
--- a/autofiles.sums
+++ b/autofiles.sums
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-c2704f4dca902266b5356fc80558ee642a5df6fac0ca97367903cb62efef5e75  configure.ac
+16ac2eb6f8e5b191f8f89d6447338b672c43c49c6d682b17a489ae584d38de4c  configure.ac
 d3f9ee6f6f0846888d9a10fd3dad2e4b1258be84205426cf04d7cef02d61dad7  aclocal.m4
 c12d837479fa9a3fa4c278b6dc7d6b449503d663e0f0d294305595a51ff43f70  libqpdf/qpdf/qpdf-config.h.in
 5297971a0ef90bcd5563eb3f7127a032bb76d3ae2af7258bf13479caf8983a60  m4/ax_cxx_compile_stdcxx.m4
diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 9b17a651..33d6fc94 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -722,6 +722,7 @@ SHA256SUM
 ACLOCAL
 AUTOHEADER
 AUTOCONF
+MAINTAINER_MODE
 target_alias
 host_alias
 build_alias
@@ -764,6 +765,7 @@ SHELL'
 ac_subst_files=''
 ac_user_opts='
 enable_option_checking
+enable_maintainer_mode
 enable_check_autofiles
 enable_shared
 enable_static
@@ -1445,6 +1447,10 @@ Optional Features:
   --disable-option-checking  ignore unrecognized --enable/--with options
   --disable-FEATURE       do not include FEATURE (same as --enable-FEATURE=no)
   --enable-FEATURE[=ARG]  include FEATURE [ARG=yes]
+  --enable-maintainer-mode
+                          turn on features intended for maintainers that may
+                          change generated files and require additional tools;
+                          implies enable-doc-maintenances
   --enable-check-autofiles
                           if specified, verify checksums on automatically
                           generated files (default=yes); package maintainers
@@ -1488,7 +1494,8 @@ Optional Features:
                           console; useful for building on build servers where
                           you can't easily open the test output files
   --enable-doc-maintenance
-                          if set, enables all documentation options
+                          if set, enables all documentation options; also
+                          turned on by maintainer mode
   --enable-html-doc       whether to build HTML documents
   --enable-pdf-doc        whether to build PDF documents
   --enable-oss-fuzz       if set, build static fuzzers for oss-fuzz
@@ -2647,6 +2654,19 @@ ac_config_files="$ac_config_files libqpdf.map"
 ac_config_headers="$ac_config_headers libqpdf/qpdf/qpdf-config.h"
 
 
+
+# Check whether --enable-maintainer-mode was given.
+if test "${enable_maintainer_mode+set}" = set; then :
+  enableval=$enable_maintainer_mode; if test "$enableval" = "no"; then
+      MAINTAINER_MODE=0
+    else
+      MAINTAINER_MODE=1
+    fi
+else
+  MAINTAINER_MODE=0
+fi
+
+
 # Check whether --enable-check-autofiles was given.
 if test "${enable_check_autofiles+set}" = set; then :
   enableval=$enable_check_autofiles; if test "$enableval" = "no"; then
@@ -18594,7 +18614,7 @@ if test "${enable_doc_maintenance+set}" = set; then :
       doc_default=0;
     fi
 else
-  doc_default=0
+  doc_default=$MAINTAINER_MODE
 fi
 
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index f5f789f4..86a71254 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -10,6 +10,17 @@ AC_CONFIG_FILES([libqpdf.pc])
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([libqpdf.map])
 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([libqpdf/qpdf/qpdf-config.h])
 
+AC_SUBST(MAINTAINER_MODE)
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(maintainer-mode,
+   AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-maintainer-mode],
+		  [turn on features intended for maintainers that may change generated files and require additional tools; implies enable-doc-maintenances]),
+   [if test "$enableval" = "no"; then
+      MAINTAINER_MODE=0
+    else
+      MAINTAINER_MODE=1
+    fi],
+   [MAINTAINER_MODE=0])
+
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(check-autofiles,
    AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-check-autofiles],
 		  [if specified, verify checksums on automatically generated files (default=yes); package maintainers may want to disable this]),
@@ -801,13 +812,13 @@ AC_CHECK_PROG(SPHINX,sphinx-build,sphinx-build,[])
 
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(doc-maintenance,
    AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-doc-maintenance],
-		  [if set, enables all documentation options]),
+		  [if set, enables all documentation options; also turned on by maintainer mode]),
    [if test "$enableval" = "yes"; then
       doc_default=1;
     else
       doc_default=0;
     fi],
-   [doc_default=0])
+   [doc_default=$MAINTAINER_MODE])
 
 BUILD_HTML=0
 AC_SUBST(BUILD_HTML)