diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 96034e514..160c5f0fe 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,8 +1,5 @@
 book
 
-# prevent accidental changes
-book.toml
-
 ci/date-check/target/
 
 # Generated by check-in.sh
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 599de487b..d32d2386c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -59,6 +59,10 @@ The build files are found in the `book/html` directory.
 We use `mdbook-linkcheck2` to validate URLs included in our documentation.
 `linkcheck` will be run automatically when you build with the instructions in the section above.
 
+> [!NOTE]
+> The link validation can be skipped by setting the following environment variable:
+> `SKIP_LINKCHECK=1 mdbook ...`
+
 ### Table of Contents
 
 We use `mdbook-toc` to auto-generate TOCs for long sections. You can invoke the preprocessor by
@@ -66,9 +70,10 @@ including the `<!-- toc -->` marker at the place where you want the TOC.
 
 ## How to fix toolstate failures
 
-> **NOTE**: Currently, we do not track the rustc-dev-guide toolstate due to
-[spurious failures](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/71731),
-but we leave these instructions for when we do it again in the future.
+> [!NOTE]
+> Currently, we do not track the rustc-dev-guide toolstate due to
+> [spurious failures](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/71731),
+> but we leave these instructions for when we do it again in the future.
 
 1. You will get a ping from the toolstate commit. e.g. https://github.com/rust-lang-nursery/rust-toolstate/commit/8ffa0e4c30ac9ba8546b7046e5c4ccc2b96ebdd4
 
diff --git a/ci/linkcheck.sh b/ci/linkcheck.sh
index b3d8a4444..9b06f67fc 100755
--- a/ci/linkcheck.sh
+++ b/ci/linkcheck.sh
@@ -3,10 +3,17 @@
 set -e
 set -o pipefail
 
+LINKCHECK_BINARY=mdbook-linkcheck2
+
 set_github_token() {
   jq '.config.output.linkcheck."http-headers"."github\\.com" = ["Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN"]'
 }
 
+if [ ! -z "$SKIP_LINKCHECK" ] ; then
+  echo "Skipping link check."
+  exit 0
+fi
+
 # https://docs.github.com/en/actions/reference/environment-variables
 if [ "$GITHUB_EVENT_NAME" = "schedule" ] ; then # running in scheduled job
   FLAGS=""
@@ -32,10 +39,10 @@ else # running locally
   echo "Checking files changed in $COMMIT_RANGE: $CHANGED_FILES"
 fi
 
-echo "exec mdbook-linkcheck2 $FLAGS"
+echo "exec $LINKCHECK_BINARY $FLAGS"
 if [ "$USE_TOKEN" = 1 ]; then
   config=$(set_github_token)
-  exec mdbook-linkcheck2 $FLAGS <<<"$config"
+  exec $LINKCHECK_BINARY $FLAGS <<<"$config"
 else
-  exec mdbook-linkcheck2 $FLAGS
+  exec $LINKCHECK_BINARY $FLAGS
 fi