diff --git a/Documentation/Makefile b/Documentation/Makefile
index ce8eb63b523a..30554a2fbdd7 100644
--- a/Documentation/Makefile
+++ b/Documentation/Makefile
@@ -33,8 +33,6 @@ ifeq ($(HAVE_SPHINX),0)
 
 else # HAVE_SPHINX
 
-export SPHINX_PARALLEL = $(shell perl -e 'open IN,"sphinx-build --version 2>&1 |"; while (<IN>) { if (m/([\d\.]+)/) { print "auto" if ($$1 >= "1.7") } ;} close IN')
-
 # User-friendly check for pdflatex and latexmk
 HAVE_PDFLATEX := $(shell if which $(PDFLATEX) >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo 1; else echo 0; fi)
 HAVE_LATEXMK := $(shell if which latexmk >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo 1; else echo 0; fi)
@@ -67,8 +65,9 @@ quiet_cmd_sphinx = SPHINX  $@ --> file://$(abspath $(BUILDDIR)/$3/$4)
       cmd_sphinx = $(MAKE) BUILDDIR=$(abspath $(BUILDDIR)) $(build)=Documentation/media $2 && \
 	PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1 \
 	BUILDDIR=$(abspath $(BUILDDIR)) SPHINX_CONF=$(abspath $(srctree)/$(src)/$5/$(SPHINX_CONF)) \
+	$(PYTHON) $(srctree)/scripts/jobserver-exec \
+	$(SHELL) $(srctree)/Documentation/sphinx/parallel-wrapper.sh \
 	$(SPHINXBUILD) \
-	-j $(shell python $(srctree)/scripts/jobserver-count $(SPHINX_PARALLEL)) \
 	-b $2 \
 	-c $(abspath $(srctree)/$(src)) \
 	-d $(abspath $(BUILDDIR)/.doctrees/$3) \
diff --git a/Documentation/sphinx/parallel-wrapper.sh b/Documentation/sphinx/parallel-wrapper.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..7daf5133bdd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/sphinx/parallel-wrapper.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
+#
+# Figure out if we should follow a specific parallelism from the make
+# environment (as exported by scripts/jobserver-exec), or fall back to
+# the "auto" parallelism when "-jN" is not specified at the top-level
+# "make" invocation.
+
+sphinx="$1"
+shift || true
+
+parallel="$PARALLELISM"
+if [ -z "$parallel" ] ; then
+	# If no parallelism is specified at the top-level make, then
+	# fall back to the expected "-jauto" mode that the "htmldocs"
+	# target has had.
+	auto=$(perl -e 'open IN,"'"$sphinx"' --version 2>&1 |";
+			while (<IN>) {
+				if (m/([\d\.]+)/) {
+					print "auto" if ($1 >= "1.7")
+				}
+			}
+			close IN')
+	if [ -n "$auto" ] ; then
+		parallel="$auto"
+	fi
+fi
+# Only if some parallelism has been determined do we add the -jN option.
+if [ -n "$parallel" ] ; then
+	parallel="-j$parallel"
+fi
+
+exec "$sphinx" "$parallel" "$@"
diff --git a/scripts/jobserver-count b/scripts/jobserver-count
deleted file mode 100755
index 7807bfa7dafa..000000000000
--- a/scripts/jobserver-count
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,59 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python
-# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
-#
-# This determines how many parallel tasks "make" is expecting, as it is
-# not exposed via an special variables.
-# https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/POSIX-Jobserver.html#POSIX-Jobserver
-from __future__ import print_function
-import os, sys, fcntl, errno
-
-# Default parallelism is "1" unless overridden on the command-line.
-default="1"
-if len(sys.argv) > 1:
-	default=sys.argv[1]
-
-# Extract and prepare jobserver file descriptors from envirnoment.
-try:
-	# Fetch the make environment options.
-	flags = os.environ['MAKEFLAGS']
-
-	# Look for "--jobserver=R,W"
-	# Note that GNU Make has used --jobserver-fds and --jobserver-auth
-	# so this handles all of them.
-	opts = [x for x in flags.split(" ") if x.startswith("--jobserver")]
-
-	# Parse out R,W file descriptor numbers and set them nonblocking.
-	fds = opts[0].split("=", 1)[1]
-	reader, writer = [int(x) for x in fds.split(",", 1)]
-	# Open a private copy of reader to avoid setting nonblocking
-	# on an unexpecting process with the same reader fd.
-	reader = os.open("/proc/self/fd/%d" % (reader),
-			 os.O_RDONLY | os.O_NONBLOCK)
-except (KeyError, IndexError, ValueError, IOError, OSError) as e:
-	print(e, file=sys.stderr)
-	# Any missing environment strings or bad fds should result in just
-	# using the default specified parallelism.
-	print(default)
-	sys.exit(0)
-
-# Read out as many jobserver slots as possible.
-jobs = b""
-while True:
-	try:
-		slot = os.read(reader, 1)
-		jobs += slot
-	except (OSError, IOError) as e:
-		if e.errno == errno.EWOULDBLOCK:
-			# Stop when reach the end of the jobserver queue.
-			break
-		raise e
-# Return all the reserved slots.
-os.write(writer, jobs)
-
-# If the jobserver was (impossibly) full or communication failed, use default.
-if len(jobs) < 1:
-	print(default)
-	sys.exit(0)
-
-# Report available slots (with a bump for our caller's reserveration).
-print(len(jobs) + 1)
diff --git a/scripts/jobserver-exec b/scripts/jobserver-exec
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..0fdb31a790a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/jobserver-exec
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
+#
+# This determines how many parallel tasks "make" is expecting, as it is
+# not exposed via an special variables, reserves them all, runs a subprocess
+# with PARALLELISM environment variable set, and releases the jobs back again.
+#
+# https://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_node/POSIX-Jobserver.html#POSIX-Jobserver
+from __future__ import print_function
+import os, sys, errno
+import subprocess
+
+# Extract and prepare jobserver file descriptors from envirnoment.
+claim = 0
+jobs = b""
+try:
+	# Fetch the make environment options.
+	flags = os.environ['MAKEFLAGS']
+
+	# Look for "--jobserver=R,W"
+	# Note that GNU Make has used --jobserver-fds and --jobserver-auth
+	# so this handles all of them.
+	opts = [x for x in flags.split(" ") if x.startswith("--jobserver")]
+
+	# Parse out R,W file descriptor numbers and set them nonblocking.
+	fds = opts[0].split("=", 1)[1]
+	reader, writer = [int(x) for x in fds.split(",", 1)]
+	# Open a private copy of reader to avoid setting nonblocking
+	# on an unexpecting process with the same reader fd.
+	reader = os.open("/proc/self/fd/%d" % (reader),
+			 os.O_RDONLY | os.O_NONBLOCK)
+
+	# Read out as many jobserver slots as possible.
+	while True:
+		try:
+			slot = os.read(reader, 8)
+			jobs += slot
+		except (OSError, IOError) as e:
+			if e.errno == errno.EWOULDBLOCK:
+				# Stop at the end of the jobserver queue.
+				break
+			# If something went wrong, give back the jobs.
+			if len(jobs):
+				os.write(writer, jobs)
+			raise e
+	# Add a bump for our caller's reserveration, since we're just going
+	# to sit here blocked on our child.
+	claim = len(jobs) + 1
+except (KeyError, IndexError, ValueError, OSError, IOError) as e:
+	# Any missing environment strings or bad fds should result in just
+	# not being parallel.
+	pass
+
+# We can only claim parallelism if there was a jobserver (i.e. a top-level
+# "-jN" argument) and there were no other failures. Otherwise leave out the
+# environment variable and let the child figure out what is best.
+if claim > 0:
+	os.environ['PARALLELISM'] = '%d' % (claim)
+
+rc = subprocess.call(sys.argv[1:])
+
+# Return all the reserved slots.
+if len(jobs):
+	os.write(writer, jobs)
+
+sys.exit(rc)