diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 40d6b8b2cb..51a7971c21 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -19,8 +19,6 @@ ifdef DOCKER_COMPOSE
 DOCKER_BIN:=$(DOCKER_COMPOSE)
 else ifdef DOCKER_TOOL
 DOCKER_BIN:=$(DOCKER_TOOL) compose
-else
-$(error ERROR: Can't find docker-compose nor docker tool. Please, install docker and try again)
 endif # DOCKER_* checks
 endif # DOCKER_BIN
 
@@ -64,14 +62,15 @@ help:
 list:
 	@echo ""
 	@echo "Supported top-level targets:"
-	@echo "\t * help - shows short basic help"
-	@echo "\t * list - this output"
+	@echo "\t * help         - shows short basic help"
+	@echo "\t * list         - this output"
 	@echo "\t * docker-shell - start docker container with shell inside to work on IronOS with all tools needed"
 	@echo "\t * docker-build - compile builds of IronOS for supported models inside docker container and place them to \"scripts/ci/artefacts/\""
 	@echo "\t * docker-clean - delete created docker container (but not pre-downloaded data for it)"
-	@echo "\t * docs - generate \"site\"/ directory with documentation in a form of static html files using ReadTheDocs framework and $(MKDOCS_YML) local config file"
-	@echo "\t * docs-deploy - generate & deploy docs online to gh-pages branch of current github repo"
-	@echo "\t * clean-full - delete files & directories generated by all the targets above "
+	@echo "\t * docs         - generate \"site\"/ directory with documentation in a form of static html files using ReadTheDocs framework and $(MKDOCS_YML) local config file"
+	@echo "\t * docs-deploy  - generate & deploy docs online to gh-pages branch of current github repo"
+	@echo "\t * clean-build  - delete generated files & dirs produced during builds EXCEPT generated docker container image"
+	@echo "\t * clean-full   - delete generated files & dirs produced during builds INCLUDING generated docker container image"
 	@echo ""
 	@echo "NOTES on supported pass-trough targets:"
 	@echo "\t * main Makefile is located in source/ directory and used to build the firmware itself;"
@@ -91,16 +90,25 @@ list:
 # bash one-liner to generate langs for "make list":
 # echo "`ls Translations/ | grep -e "^translation_.*.json$" | sed -e 's,^translation_,,g; s,\.json$,,g; ' | tr '\n' ' '`"
 
+# detect availability of docker
+docker-check:
+ifeq ($(DOCKER_BIN),)
+	@echo "ERROR: Can't find docker-compose nor docker tool. Please, install docker and try again"
+	@exit 1
+else
+	@true
+endif
+
 # former start_dev.sh
-docker-shell: $(DOCKER_DEPS)
+docker-shell: docker-check  $(DOCKER_DEPS)
 	$(DOCKER_CMD)
 
 # former build.sh
-docker-build: $(DOCKER_DEPS)
+docker-build: docker-check  $(DOCKER_DEPS)
 	$(DOCKER_CMD)  /bin/bash  /build/ci/buildAll.sh
 
 # delete container
-docker-clean:
+docker-clean: docker-check
 	-docker  rmi  ironos-builder:latest
 
 # generate docs in site/ directory (DIR for -d is relative to mkdocs.yml file location, hence use default name/location site by setting up ../site)
@@ -115,11 +123,14 @@ docs-deploy: $(MKDOCS_YML)  Documentation/*  Documentation/Flashing/*  Documenta
 %:
 	make  -C source/  $@
 
-# global clean-up target
-clean-full: docker-clean
+# global clean-up target for produced/generated files inside tree
+clean-build:
 	make  -C source/  clean-all
 	rm  -Rf  site
 	rm  -Rf  scripts/ci/artefacts
 
-.PHONY:  docker-shell  docker-build  docker-clean  docs  clean-full
+# global clean-up target
+clean-full: clean-build  docker-clean
+
+.PHONY:  help  list  docker-check  docker-shell  docker-build  docker-clean  docs  docs-deploy  clean-build  clean-full