diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 8273dd31ad215d89ace894e18ba4ac6f46080caa..bae3c5ae0ae844c377fbdc4dbda20cd8085203ae 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -45,15 +45,9 @@ versiondocs:
     - hugo version
     - mkdir build
     - cd build
-    - ls -l ../hugo/static/py || echo "no static/py"
-    - ls -l ../hugo/public/py || echo "no public/py"
     - time cmake .. -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_LAUNCHER=ccache -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$QTCMAKE -DBATCH_MODE=ON
     - time make -j8
-    - ls -l ../hugo/static/py || echo "no static/py"
-    - ls -l ../hugo/public/py || echo "no public/py"
     - time make -j8 webdoc
-    - ls -l ../hugo/static/py || echo "no static/py"
-    - ls -l ../hugo/public/py || echo "no public/py"
     - rm -rf ~www/ba/git-main/hugo-public
     - cp -r ../hugo/public ~www/ba/git-main/hugo-public
 
diff --git a/hugo/CMakeLists.txt b/hugo/CMakeLists.txt
index 0559bfe48a153f848d8aa0d8596b7b2ca7cdde5b..0e7d296dfcf776ce8ebea725ed0a8f991e972670 100644
--- a/hugo/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/hugo/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 add_custom_target(hugo COMMAND hugo WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/hugo)
+add_dependencies(hugo excopy figures)
+# Build targets excopy and figures populate hugo/static/(img|py)/auto;
+# build target hugo copies them from hugo/static/(img|py) to hugo/public/(img|py).
+
+# The following is needed to decouple top-level target webdoc from hugo;
+# empirically, without this, the dependence of hugo on excopy and figures is not respected.
 add_custom_target(webdoc)
-add_dependencies(webdoc excopy figures hugo)
+add_dependencies(webdoc hugo)
diff --git a/hugo/content/ex/sample/compund-particle.md b/hugo/content/ex/sample/compound-particle.md
similarity index 100%
rename from hugo/content/ex/sample/compund-particle.md
rename to hugo/content/ex/sample/compound-particle.md