diff --git a/updatedoc.sh b/updatedoc.sh
index 5a6fea56b1e..eb2bb56d624 100755
--- a/updatedoc.sh
+++ b/updatedoc.sh
@@ -1,19 +1,31 @@
-#!/bin/sh
+#!/bin/sh -e
 # generates the API docs and uploads them to github pages
 # for help on github pages see: http://pages.github.com/
 
+ec() {
+    echo "$@" >&2
+    "$@"
+}
+
+ec cd $(dirname $0)
+
 # TODO can we fail the build if the docs are not created?
-ant doc || exit $?
+ec ant doc
 
 echo "Cloning/pulling latest gh-pages branch"
 
-git clone -b gh-pages git@github.com:JetBrains/kotlin.git gh-pages
-cd gh-pages
-git pull || exit $?
-rm -rf apidoc/stdlib/*
-cp -r ../dist/apidoc/* apidoc
-git add apidoc || exit $?
-git commit -m "latest apidocs" || exit $?
-git push || exit $?
+if [ ! -e gh-pages ]; then
+    ec git clone -b gh-pages git@github.com:JetBrains/kotlin.git gh-pages
+    ec cd gh-pages
+else
+    ec cd gh-pages
+    ec git checkout gh-pages
+    ec git pull --rebase
+fi
+ec git rm -r apidoc
+ec cp -r ../dist/apidoc apidoc
+ec git add apidoc
+ec git commit -m "latest apidocs"
+ec git push
 
 echo "Updated github pages for apidocs"