diff --git a/maint/Makefile.am b/maint/Makefile.am
index a08de40c9a..bb129efb7e 100644
--- a/maint/Makefile.am
+++ b/maint/Makefile.am
@@ -1,92 +1,102 @@
 #
 # Copyright 2019-2022 the Pacemaker project contributors
 #
 # The version control history for this file may have further details.
 #
 # This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2
 # or later (GPLv2+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
 #
 
 # Define release-related variables
 include $(abs_srcdir)/../mk/release.mk
 
 noinst_SCRIPTS		= bumplibs
 EXTRA_DIST		= README
 
 #
 # Change log generation
 #
 
 # Count changes in these directories
 CHANGELOG_DIRS = ../include ../lib ../daemons ../tools ../xml
 
+.PHONY: require_last_release
+require_last_release:
+	@if [ -z "$(CHECKOUT)" ]; then					\
+		echo "This target must be run from a git checkout";	\
+		exit 1;							\
+	elif ! git rev-parse $(LAST_RELEASE) >/dev/null 2>&1; then	\
+		echo "LAST_RELEASE must be set to a valid git tag";	\
+		exit 1;							\
+	fi
+
 .PHONY: summary
-summary:
+summary: require_last_release
 	@printf "\n* `date +"%a %b %d %Y"` `git config user.name` <`git config user.email`> $(NEXT_RELEASE)"
 	@printf "\n- Changesets: `git log --pretty=oneline --no-merges $(LAST_RELEASE)..HEAD | wc -l`"
 	@printf "\n- Diff:`git diff $(LAST_RELEASE)..HEAD --shortstat $(CHANGELOG_DIRS)`\n"
 
 .PHONY: changes
 changes: summary
 	@printf "\n- Features added since $(LAST_RELEASE)\n"
 	@git log --pretty=format:'%s' --no-merges --abbrev-commit $(LAST_RELEASE)..HEAD \
 		| sed -n -e 's/^ *Feature: */  + /p' | sort -uf
 	@printf "\n- Fixes since $(LAST_RELEASE)\n"
 	@git log --pretty=format:'%s' --no-merges --abbrev-commit $(LAST_RELEASE)..HEAD \
 		| sed -n -e 's/^ *\(Fix\|High\|Bug\): */  + /p' | sed			\
 			-e 's@\(cib\|pacemaker-based\|based\):@CIB:@' \
 			-e 's@\(crmd\|pacemaker-controld\|controld\):@controller:@' \
 			-e 's@\(lrmd\|pacemaker-execd\|execd\):@executor:@' \
 			-e 's@\(Fencing\|stonithd\|stonith\|pacemaker-fenced\|fenced\):@fencing:@' \
 			-e 's@\(PE\|pengine\|pacemaker-schedulerd\|schedulerd\):@scheduler:@' \
 		| sort -uf
 	@printf "\n- Public API changes since $(LAST_RELEASE)\n"
 	@git log --pretty=format:'%s' --no-merges --abbrev-commit $(LAST_RELEASE)..HEAD \
 		| sed -n -e 's/^ *API: */  + /p' | sort -uf
 
 .PHONY: rc-changes
 rc-changes:
 	@$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) NEXT_RELEASE=$(shell echo $(LAST_RC) | sed s:-rc.*::) LAST_RELEASE=$(LAST_RC) changes
 
 .PHONY: authors
-authors:
+authors: require_last_release
 	git log $(LAST_RELEASE)..$(COMMIT) --format='%an' | sort -u
 
 .PHONY: changelog
-changelog:
+changelog: require_last_release
 	@$(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) changes > ../ChangeLog
 	@printf "\n">> ../ChangeLog
 	git show $(LAST_RELEASE):ChangeLog >> ../ChangeLog
 
 #
 # gnulib updates
 #
 # See https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/
 #
 
 # V3	= scandir unsetenv alphasort xalloc
 # V2	= setenv strerror strchrnul strndup
 GNU_MODS	= crypto/md5-buffer
 # stdint appears to be surrogate only for C99-lacking environments
 GNU_MODS_AVOID	= stdint
 
 .PHONY: gnulib-update
 gnulib-update:
 	@echo 'Newer versions of gnulib require automake 1.14'
 	@echo 'Pacemaker cannot update until minimum supported automake is 1.14'
 	@exit 1
 	if test -e gnulib; then							\
 		cd gnulib && git pull;						\
 	else									\
 		git clone https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/gnulib.git gnulib	\
 			&& cd gnulib && git config pull.rebase false;		\
 	fi
 	cd $(top_srcdir) && maint/gnulib/gnulib-tool --source-base=lib/gnu 	\
 		--lgpl=2 --no-vc-files --no-conditional-dependencies --libtool	\
 		$(GNU_MODS_AVOID:%=--avoid %) --import $(GNU_MODS)
 	sed -i -e "s/bundled(gnulib).*/bundled(gnulib) = `date +'%Y%m%d'`/"	\
 		../rpm/pacemaker.spec.in
 	sed -i -e "s/_GL_EXTERN_INLINE/_GL_INLINE/" 				\
 		-e "s#left_over -= 64;#left_over \&= 63; /* helps static analysis */#"	\
 		-e "s#&ctx->buffer\[16\]#\&(((char *) ctx->buffer)[64]) /* helps static analysis */#"	\
 		../lib/gnu/md5.c
diff --git a/mk/release.mk b/mk/release.mk
index 9bf9651504..34042cd27a 100644
--- a/mk/release.mk
+++ b/mk/release.mk
@@ -1,87 +1,86 @@
 #
 # Copyright 2008-2022 the Pacemaker project contributors
 #
 # The version control history for this file may have further details.
 #
 # This source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2
 # or later (GPLv2+) WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.
 #
 
 # Define variables related to release version and such
 
 COMMIT	?= HEAD
 
 # TAG defaults to DIST when in a source distribution instead of a git checkout,
 # the tag name if COMMIT is tagged, and the full commit ID otherwise.
 TAG	?= $(shell								\
 	     T=$$(git describe --tags --exact-match '$(COMMIT)' 2>/dev/null);	\
 	     [ -n "$${T}" ] && echo "$${T}" 					\
 	     || git log --pretty=format:%H -n 1 '$(COMMIT)' 2>/dev/null		\
 	     || echo DIST)
 
 # If DIRTY=anything is passed to make, generated versions will end in ".mod"
 # as long as there are uncommitted changes and COMMIT is not changed from the
 # default.
 DIRTY_EXT	= $(shell [ -n "$(DIRTY)" ]				\
 			&& [ "$(COMMIT)" == "HEAD" ] 			\
 			&& ! git diff-index --quiet HEAD -- 2>/dev/null	\
 			&& echo .mod)
 
 # These can be used in case statements to avoid make interpreting parentheses
 lparen = (
 rparen = )
 
 # git tag of highest-versioned release candidate (such as "Pacemaker-2.1.5-rc2")
 # or empty if not in git checkout
 LAST_RC		?= $(shell git tag -l 2>/dev/null				\
 		     | sed -n -e 's/^\(Pacemaker-[0-9.]*-rc[0-9]*\)$$/\1/p'	\
 		     | sort -Vr | head -n 1)
 
-# true if in a git checkout
-CHECKOUT	= $(shell git rev-parse --git-dir >/dev/null 2>/dev/null 	\
-		    && echo true)
+# This will be empty if not in a git checkout
+CHECKOUT	= $(shell git rev-parse --git-dir 2>/dev/null)
 
 # VERSION is set by configure, but we allow some make targets to be run without
 # running configure first, so set a reasonable default in that case.
 VERSION		?= $(shell if [ -z "$(CHECKOUT)" ]; then			\
 			echo 0.0.0;						\
 		     else							\
 			git tag -l						\
 				| sed -n -e 's/^\(Pacemaker-[0-9.]*\)$$/\1/p'	\
 				| sort -Vr | head -n 1;				\
 		     fi)
 
 # What the git tag would be for configured VERSION (such as "Pacemaker-2.1.5")
 LAST_RELEASE	?= Pacemaker-$(VERSION)
 
 # What the git tag would be for configured VERSION with minor-minor version bump
 # (such as "Pacemaker-2.1.6"; this should be manually overriden when bumping
 # the major or minor version)
 NEXT_RELEASE	?= $(shell echo $(LAST_RELEASE) 			\
 		     | awk -F. '/[0-9]+\./{$$3+=1;OFS=".";print $$1,$$2,$$3}')
 
 # We have two make targets for creating distributions:
 #
 # - "make dist" is automake's native functionality, based on the various
 #   dist/nodist make variables; it always uses the current sources
 #
 # - "make export" is a custom target based on "git archive" and relevant
 #   entries from .gitattributes; it defaults to current sources but can use any
 #   git tag
 #
 # Both targets use the same name for the result, though they generate different
 # contents.
 #
 # The directory is named pacemaker-<version> when in a source distribution
 # instead of a git checkout, pacemaker-<version_part_of_tag> for tagged
 # commits, and pacemaker-<short_commit> otherwise.
 top_distdir	= $(PACKAGE)-$(shell						\
 		  case $(TAG) in						\
 			DIST$(rparen)						\
 				[ -n "$(VERSION)" ] && echo "$(VERSION)"	\
 					|| echo DIST;;				\
 			Pacemaker-*$(rparen)					\
 				echo '$(TAG)' | cut -c11-;;			\
 			*$(rparen)						\
 				git log --pretty=format:%h -n 1 '$(TAG)';;	\
 		  esac)$(DIRTY_EXT)