diff --git a/dist/tools/doccheck/check.sh b/dist/tools/doccheck/check.sh
index 3766378d2f..a2c9a95056 100755
--- a/dist/tools/doccheck/check.sh
+++ b/dist/tools/doccheck/check.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ RIOTBASE="$(cd "${SCRIPTDIR}"/../../..; pwd)"
 EXCLUDE_PATTERN_FILE="${SCRIPTDIR}/exclude_patterns"
 GENERIC_EXCLUDE_PATTERN_FILE="${SCRIPTDIR}/generic_exclude_patterns"
 
+if [[ -z ${DOCUMENTATION_FORMAT+x} ]]; then
+export DOCUMENTATION_FORMAT=check
+fi
+
 . "${RIOTBASE}"/dist/tools/ci/github_annotate.sh
 
 github_annotate_setup
@@ -33,7 +37,6 @@ DOXY_OUTPUT=$(make -C "${RIOTBASE}" doc 2>&1 | grep -Evf "${EXCLUDE_PATTERN_FILE
 DOXY_ERRCODE=$?
 RESULT=0
 
-
 if [ "${DOXY_ERRCODE}" -ne 0 ] ; then
     echo "'make doc' exited with non-zero code (${DOXY_ERRCODE})"
     echo "${DOXY_OUTPUT}"
@@ -53,6 +56,8 @@ else
                           sed -e 's/^[ \t]*//' -e 's/[ \t]*$//')
                 github_annotate_error "${FILENAME}" "${LINENR}" "${DETAILS}"
             done
+            # show errors not matching the pattern above
+            echo "${ERRORS}" | grep -v "^.\+:[0-9]\+: warning:"
         else
             echo -e "${CERROR}ERROR: Doxygen generates the following warnings:${CRESET}"
             echo "${ERRORS}"
diff --git a/dist/tools/doccheck/exclude_patterns b/dist/tools/doccheck/exclude_patterns
index eafb917388..7da18e9b6d 100644
--- a/dist/tools/doccheck/exclude_patterns
+++ b/dist/tools/doccheck/exclude_patterns
@@ -12743,3 +12743,4 @@ boards/xg23\-pk6068a/include/periph_conf\.h:[0-9]+: warning: Member TIMER_1_ISR
 boards/xg23\-pk6068a/include/periph_conf\.h:[0-9]+: warning: Member TIMER_0_MAX_VALUE \(macro definition\) of file periph_conf\.h is not documented\.
 boards/xg23\-pk6068a/include/periph_conf\.h:[0-9]+: warning: Member TIMER_1_MAX_VALUE \(macro definition\) of file periph_conf\.h is not documented\.
 boards/xg23\-pk6068a/include/periph_conf\.h:[0-9]+: warning: Member UART_0_ISR_RX \(macro definition\) of file periph_conf\.h is not documented\.
+warning: No output formats selected! Set at least one of the main GENERATE_\* options to YES\.
diff --git a/doc/doxygen/Makefile b/doc/doxygen/Makefile
index f9eb957b08..9d6c62b97b 100644
--- a/doc/doxygen/Makefile
+++ b/doc/doxygen/Makefile
@@ -9,14 +9,20 @@ export STRIP_FROM_INC_PATH_LIST=$(shell \
 # It can also be installed in ubuntu with the `node-less` package
 LESSC ?= $(shell command -v lessc 2>/dev/null)
 
+DOCUMENTATION_FORMAT ?= html
+
 .PHONY: doc
-doc: html
+doc: $(DOCUMENTATION_FORMAT)
 
 # by marking html as phony we force make to re-run Doxygen even if the directory exists.
 .PHONY: html
 html: src/css/riot.css src/changelog.md
 	( cat riot.doxyfile ; echo "GENERATE_HTML = yes" ) | doxygen -
 
+.PHONY: check
+check: src/changelog.md
+	( cat riot.doxyfile) | doxygen -
+
 .PHONY: man
 man: src/changelog.md
 	( cat riot.doxyfile ; echo "GENERATE_MAN = yes" ) | doxygen -