diff --git a/contrib/devtools/gen-manpages.sh b/contrib/devtools/gen-manpages.sh
index c583c44223..fb20313ec6 100755
--- a/contrib/devtools/gen-manpages.sh
+++ b/contrib/devtools/gen-manpages.sh
@@ -1,32 +1,37 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
 export LC_ALL=C
+
+set -euxo pipefail
+
 TOPDIR=${TOPDIR:-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)}
 BUILDDIR=${BUILDDIR:-$TOPDIR}
 
 BINDIR=${BINDIR:-$BUILDDIR/src}
 MANDIR=${MANDIR:-$TOPDIR/doc/man}
 
 BITCOIND=${BITCOIND:-$BINDIR/bitcoind}
 BITCOINCLI=${BITCOINCLI:-$BINDIR/bitcoin-cli}
 BITCOINTX=${BITCOINTX:-$BINDIR/bitcoin-tx}
 BITCOINQT=${BITCOINQT:-$BINDIR/qt/bitcoin-qt}
 
 [ ! -x $BITCOIND ] && echo "$BITCOIND not found or not executable." && exit 1
 
 # The autodetected version git tag can screw up manpage output a little bit
 read -r -a BTCVER <<< "$($BITCOINCLI --version | head -n1 | awk -F'[ -]' '{ print $6, $7 }')"
 
 # Create a footer file with copyright content.
 # This gets autodetected fine for bitcoind if --version-string is not set,
 # but has different outcomes for bitcoin-qt and bitcoin-cli.
+cleanup() {
+  rm -f footer.h2m
+}
+trap "cleanup" EXIT
 echo "[COPYRIGHT]" > footer.h2m
 $BITCOIND --version | sed -n '1!p' >> footer.h2m
 
 for cmd in $BITCOIND $BITCOINCLI $BITCOINTX $BITCOINQT; do
   cmdname="${cmd##*/}"
   help2man -N --version-string=${BTCVER[0]} --include=footer.h2m -o ${MANDIR}/${cmdname}.1 ${cmd}
   sed -i "s/\\\-${BTCVER[1]}//g" ${MANDIR}/${cmdname}.1
 done
-
-rm -f footer.h2m