diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 0d98d273634e588d575bf1b0b97de53d9c149feb..711dd87224c408845cc1293f9c47d9e482b70d34 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -422,7 +422,7 @@ 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 be58c5ea79c782d59a1c0377b71355e059d1926a..360faea0baeef6c89250690f0c33477a5adac3a3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -249,6 +249,17 @@ 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)