diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index c477a8869..a6585b4bb 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -241,6 +241,8 @@ if(ENABLE_TESTS)
   else()
     message(SEND_ERROR "CppUTest not found")
   endif()
+else()
+  add_custom_target(test)
 endif()
 
 configure_file(config.h.cmake config.h @ONLY)
diff --git a/ChangeLog.adoc b/ChangeLog.adoc
index 674ad2aac..802782c86 100644
--- a/ChangeLog.adoc
+++ b/ChangeLog.adoc
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ Tests::
 
 Build::
 
+  * core: add a fake target "test" so that `make test` successes when tests are not compiled
   * core: rename scripts: build-debian.sh to build_debian.sh, build-test.sh to build_test.sh, git-version.sh to set_git_version.sh
   * debian: change dependency guile-2.2-dev to guile-3.0-dev
   * python: remove support of Python 2.x