diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index f48169fb..e975ee8f 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -106,7 +106,11 @@ version = version_info.version_string()
 # These variables are passed to the logabug code via html_context.
 giturl = u'https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/manila/tree/doc/source'
 git_cmd = "/usr/bin/git log | head -n1 | cut -f2 -d' '"
-gitsha = os.popen(git_cmd).read().strip('\n')
+try:
+    gitsha = os.popen(git_cmd).read().strip('\n')
+except Exception:
+    warnings.warn('Cannot get gitsha.')
+    gitsha = 'unknown'
 bug_tag = u'docs'
 # source tree
 pwd = os.getcwd()