--- dh_installman.orig	2017-06-27 14:59:47 UTC
+++ dh_installman
@@ -237,7 +237,8 @@ on_items_in_parallel(\@all_packages, sub
 });
 
 # Now utf-8 conversion.
-if (defined `man --version`) {
+my $man_version = `man --version 2> /dev/null`;
+if (defined $man_version && length($man_version)) {
 	my (@manpages_to_reencode, @issues);
 	for my $package (@{$dh{DOPACKAGES}}) {
 		next if is_udeb($package);
