diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 1fc52917..08bf80b0 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ LMDB 0.9.17 Release Engineering
 		Use ANSI apis on Windows (ITS#8069 - nothing for MDBX)
 		Use O_SYNC if O_DSYNC,MDB_DSYNC are not defined (ITS#7209 - nothing for MDBX)
 		Allow passing AR to make (ITS#8168 - already done for MDBX)
+		Allow passing mandir to make install (ITS#8169)
 
 LMDB 0.9.16 Release (2015/08/14)
 	Fix cursor EOF bug (ITS#8190)
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index ee18d454..f9a11225 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ XCFLAGS ?=
 CFLAGS	?= -O2 -g -Wall -Werror -Wno-unused-parameter
 CFLAGS	+= -pthread $(XCFLAGS)
 prefix	?= /usr/local
+mandir	?= $(prefix)/man
 
 ########################################################################
 
@@ -46,7 +47,7 @@ install: $(ILIBS) $(IPROGS) $(IHDRS)
 	for f in $(IPROGS); do cp $$f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/bin; done
 	for f in $(ILIBS); do cp $$f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/lib; done
 	for f in $(IHDRS); do cp $$f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/include; done
-	for f in $(IDOCS); do cp $$f $(DESTDIR)$(prefix)/man/man1; done
+	for f in $(IDOCS); do cp $$f $(DESTDIR)$(mandir)/man1; done
 
 clean:
 	rm -rf $(PROGS) @* *.[ao] *.[ls]o *~ testdb/* *.gcov