diff --git a/scripts/kernel-doc b/scripts/kernel-doc
index 74c2f9db2aac..263d04ab2d94 100755
--- a/scripts/kernel-doc
+++ b/scripts/kernel-doc
@@ -247,6 +247,10 @@ my ($function, %function_table,%parametertypes,$declaration_purpose);
 my ($type,$declaration_name,$return_type);
 my ($newsection,$newcontents,$prototype,$filelist, $brcount, %source_map);
 
+if (defined($ENV{'KBUILD_VERBOSE'})) {
+	$verbose = "$ENV{'KBUILD_VERBOSE'}";
+}
+
 # Generated docbook code is inserted in a template at a point where
 # docbook v3.1 requires a non-zero sequence of RefEntry's; see:
 # http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/documentation/reference/html/refentry.html