diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 1760479238d6ea98dfae7b48d222e813afd8ff32..0bb93d2a5eedcc81265d160dec7cb8b0ab2fa795 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ man/%.7.in man/%.8.in: man/%.sgml man/footer.sgml $(DOCBOOK_WRAPPER)
 	@test -n "$(DOCBOOK2MAN)" || \
 	  { echo 'docbook2man' not found during configure; exit 1; }
 	$(DOCBOOK_WRAPPER) "$(DOCBOOK2MAN)" $< $(notdir $(@:.in=)) $@
-	$(CHECK_MAN) $@
+	if test -n "$(MAN_HAS_WARNINGS)"; then $(CHECK_MAN) $@; fi
 
 man/%.html.in: man/%.sgml man/footer.sgml $(DOCBOOK_WRAPPER)
 	@test -n "$(DOCBOOK2HTML)" || \
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index ac4d57bfe10d3abefb344c3ae8fd9481a89daab3..25ecd11b2a657364aca9ab28354690689e1e7be9 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -297,6 +297,17 @@ fi
 
 AC_SUBST(SOCAT_USE_ESCAPE)
 
+if man --help | grep -q -e --warnings
+then
+  MAN_HAS_WARNINGS=1
+else
+  MAN_HAS_WARNINGS=
+  AC_MSG_WARN([man doesn't support --warnings, man pages checks
+               will not be possible])
+fi
+
+AC_SUBST(MAN_HAS_WARNINGS)
+
 # Check for Python
 AM_PATH_PYTHON(2.4)