diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7885815..4449b61 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -16,5 +16,6 @@ dist
 # DOC files
 DOC/dbase/pigpio.sqlite.*
 DOC/tmp
-DOC/MAN
+DOC/MAN/*
+!DOC/MAN/README*
 DOC/HTML/*.html
diff --git a/DOC/MAN/README b/DOC/MAN/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cde5d85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/DOC/MAN/README
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Placeholder directory for man pages.