diff --git a/contrib/devtools/gen-manpages.sh b/contrib/devtools/gen-manpages.sh
index 7cd7d1b509..967717e1e0 100755
--- a/contrib/devtools/gen-manpages.sh
+++ b/contrib/devtools/gen-manpages.sh
@@ -1,18 +1,29 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-# the autodetected version git tag at the end 
-# can screw up manpage output a little bit
-BTCVER=$(bitcoin-cli --version | cut -d"-" -f1 | cut -d"v" -f3)
+TOPDIR=${TOPDIR:-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)}
+SRCDIR=${SRCDIR:-$TOPDIR/src}
+MANDIR=${MANDIR:-$TOPDIR/doc/man}
+
+BITCOIND=${BITCOIND:-$SRCDIR/bitcoind}
+BITCOINCLI=${BITCOINCLI:-$SRCDIR/bitcoin-cli}
+BITCOINTX=${BITCOINTX:-$SRCDIR/bitcoin-tx}
+BITCOINQT=${BITCOINQT:-$SRCDIR/qt/bitcoin-qt}
+
+[ ! -x $BITCOIND ] && echo "$BITCOIND not found or not executable." && exit 1
+
+# The autodetected version git tag can screw up manpage output a little bit
+BTCVER=($($BITCOINCLI --version | head -n1 | awk -F'[ -]' '{ print $6, $7 }'))
 
 # Create a footer file with copyright content.
-# This gets autodetected fine for bitcoind if
-# --version-string is not set, but has different
-# outcomes for bitcoin-qt and bitcoin-cli.
+# This gets autodetected fine for bitcoind if --version-string is not set,
+# but has different outcomes for bitcoin-qt and bitcoin-cli.
 echo "[COPYRIGHT]" > footer.h2m
-bitcoind --version | sed -n '1!p' >> footer.h2m
+$BITCOIND --version | sed -n '1!p' >> footer.h2m
 
-for cmd in bitcoind bitcoin-qt bitcoin-cli; do
-  help2man -N --version-string=${BTCVER} --include=footer.h2m -o ../../doc/man/${cmd}.1 ${cmd}
+for cmd in $BITCOIND $BITCOINCLI $BITCOINTX $BITCOINQT; do
+  cmdname="${cmd##*/}"
+  help2man -N --version-string=${BTCVER[0]} --include=footer.h2m -o ${MANDIR}/${cmdname}.1 ${cmd}
+  sed -i "s/\\\-${BTCVER[1]}//g" ${MANDIR}/${cmdname}.1
 done
 
 rm -f footer.h2m