diff --git a/.hgignore b/.hgignore
index 2b478d87b..665769c5c 100644
--- a/.hgignore
+++ b/.hgignore
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@ pep-????.html
 *.pyc
 *.pyo
 *~
+venv
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 8ea89d685..e8c3cdd69 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -33,3 +33,7 @@ clean:
 
 update:
 	hg pull -u https://hg.python.org/peps
+
+venv:
+	$(PYTHON) -m venv venv
+	./venv/bin/python -m pip install -U docutils