diff --git a/songbook b/songbook
index 9e5e3083..bda01f79 100755
--- a/songbook
+++ b/songbook
@@ -12,11 +12,21 @@ import os.path
 import textwrap
 import sys
 
-from songbook_core.build import buildsongbook
+from songbook_core.build import buildsongbook, DEFAULT_STEPS
 from songbook_core import __STR_VERSION__
 from songbook_core import errors
 
 
+# pylint: disable=too-few-public-methods
+class ParseStepsAction(argparse.Action):
+    """Argparse action to split a string into a list."""
+    def __call__(self, __parser, namespace, values, __option_string=None):
+        setattr(
+                namespace,
+                self.dest,
+                [value.strip() for value in values[0].split(',')],
+                )
+
 def argument_parser(args):
     """Parse argumnts"""
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="A song book compiler")
@@ -34,6 +44,19 @@ def argument_parser(args):
                     subdirectories are 'songs', 'img', 'latex', 'templates'.
             """))
 
+    parser.add_argument('--steps', '-s', nargs=1, type=str,
+            action=ParseStepsAction,
+            help=textwrap.dedent("""\
+                    Steps to run. Default is "{steps}".
+                    Available steps are:
+                    "tex" produce .tex file from templates;
+                    "pdf" compile .tex file;
+                    "sbx" compile index files;
+                    "clean" remove temporary files.
+            """.format(steps=','.join(DEFAULT_STEPS))),
+            default=DEFAULT_STEPS,
+            )
+
     options = parser.parse_args(args)
 
     return options
@@ -71,8 +94,15 @@ def main():
                                                )
     else:
         songbook['datadir'] = os.path.dirname(songbook_path)
+
     try:
-        buildsongbook(songbook, basename, interactive=True, logger=logger)
+        buildsongbook(
+                songbook,
+                basename,
+                steps=options.steps,
+                interactive=True,
+                logger=logger,
+                )
     except errors.SongbookError as error:
         logger.error(error)
         sys.exit(1)
diff --git a/songbook_core/build.py b/songbook_core/build.py
index f81f00ab..bf86d76d 100644
--- a/songbook_core/build.py
+++ b/songbook_core/build.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ DEFAULT_AUTHWORDS = {
         "ignore": ["unknown"],
         "sep": ["and"],
         }
+DEFAULT_STEPS = ['tex', 'pdf', 'sbx', 'pdf', 'clean']
 
 
 # pylint: disable=too-few-public-methods
@@ -137,31 +138,38 @@ def clean(basename):
             ]
 
     for ext in generated_extensions:
-        try:
-            os.unlink(basename + ext)
-        except Exception as exception:
-            raise errors.CleaningError(basename + ext, exception)
+        if os.path.isfile(basename + ext):
+            try:
+                os.unlink(basename + ext)
+            except Exception as exception:
+                raise errors.CleaningError(basename + ext, exception)
 
 
 def buildsongbook(
         raw_songbook,
         basename,
+        steps=None,
         interactive=False,
-        logger=logging.getLogger()
+        logger=logging.getLogger(),
         ):
     """Build a songbook
 
     Arguments:
     - raw_songbook: Python representation of the .sb songbook configuration
       file.
+    - steps: list of steps to perform to compile songbook. Available steps are:
+      - tex: build .tex file from templates;
+      - pdf: compile .tex using pdflatex;
+      - sbx: compile song and author indexes;
+      - clean: remove temporary files.
     - basename: basename of the songbook to be built.
     - interactive: in False, do not expect anything from stdin.
     """
 
-    songbook = Songbook(raw_songbook, basename)
-    with codecs.open("{}.tex".format(basename), 'w', 'utf-8') as output:
-        songbook.write_tex(output)
+    if steps is None:
+        steps = DEFAULT_STEPS
 
+    songbook = Songbook(raw_songbook, basename)
     if not 'TEXINPUTS' in os.environ.keys():
         os.environ['TEXINPUTS'] = ''
     os.environ['TEXINPUTS'] += os.pathsep + os.path.join(
@@ -179,22 +187,27 @@ def buildsongbook(
     if not interactive:
         pdflatex_options.append("-halt-on-error")
 
-    # First pdflatex pass
-    if subprocess.call(["pdflatex"] + pdflatex_options + [basename]):
-        raise errors.LatexCompilationError(basename)
-
-    # Make index
-    sxd_files = glob.glob("%s_*.sxd" % basename)
-    for sxd_file in sxd_files:
-        logger.info("processing " + sxd_file)
-        idx = process_sxd(sxd_file)
-        index_file = open(sxd_file[:-3] + "sbx", "w")
-        index_file.write(idx.entries_to_str().encode('utf8'))
-        index_file.close()
-
-    # Second pdflatex pass
-    if subprocess.call(["pdflatex"] + pdflatex_options + [basename]):
-        raise errors.LatexCompilationError(basename)
-
-    # Cleaning
-    clean(basename)
+    # Compilation
+    for step in steps:
+        if step == 'tex':
+            # Building .tex file from templates
+            with codecs.open("{}.tex".format(basename), 'w', 'utf-8') as output:
+                songbook.write_tex(output)
+        elif step == 'pdf':
+            if subprocess.call(["pdflatex"] + pdflatex_options + [basename]):
+                raise errors.LatexCompilationError(basename)
+        elif step == 'sbx':
+            # Make index
+            sxd_files = glob.glob("%s_*.sxd" % basename)
+            for sxd_file in sxd_files:
+                logger.info("processing " + sxd_file)
+                idx = process_sxd(sxd_file)
+                index_file = open(sxd_file[:-3] + "sbx", "w")
+                index_file.write(idx.entries_to_str().encode('utf8'))
+                index_file.close()
+        elif step == 'clean':
+            # Cleaning
+            clean(basename)
+        else:
+            # Unknown step name
+            raise errors.UnknownStep(step)
diff --git a/songbook_core/errors.py b/songbook_core/errors.py
index 7a231042..00e6b3d8 100644
--- a/songbook_core/errors.py
+++ b/songbook_core/errors.py
@@ -36,3 +36,14 @@ class CleaningError(SongbookError):
                 filename=self.filename,
                 exception=str(self.exception)
                 )
+
+class UnknownStep(SongbookError):
+    """Unknown compilation step."""
+
+    def __init__(self, step):
+        super(UnknownStep, self).__init__()
+        self.step = step
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        return """Compilation step "{step}" unknown.""".format(step=self.step)
+