--- dh_installman.orig	2018-11-13 21:27:30 UTC
+++ dh_installman
@@ -272,7 +272,8 @@ 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);