diff --git a/plug-ins/perl/Changes b/plug-ins/perl/Changes
index 9fe9e6db2d..cc168bc386 100644
--- a/plug-ins/perl/Changes
+++ b/plug-ins/perl/Changes
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ Revision history for Gimp-Perl extension.
           "sysv rules the world, but sun shines everyhwere".
         - added ... to hopefully all plug-ins that open a dialog.
 	- make clean wrongly deleted po/Makefile.
+	- po/Makefile.PL left temporary files around.
 
 1.2   Thu May 11 18:55:13 CEST 2000
 	- image types updated to reflect gimp's reality.
diff --git a/plug-ins/perl/po/Makefile.PL b/plug-ins/perl/po/Makefile.PL
index 4defe997e7..0e4708d36e 100644
--- a/plug-ins/perl/po/Makefile.PL
+++ b/plug-ins/perl/po/Makefile.PL
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ datadir  = $datadir
 
 %.po: gimp-perl.pot
 	-msgmerge -w 83 \$*.po gimp-perl.pot >\$*.po~
-	-if cmp -s \$*.po~ \$*.po; then : ; else mv \$*.po~ \$*.po; fi
+	-if cmp -s \$*.po~ \$*.po; then rm -f \$*.po~ ; else mv \$*.po~ \$*.po; fi
 
 all :: $alltarget
 
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ gimp-perl.pot: update-pot
 
 update-pot: force
 	\$(PERL) ../pxgettext `find .. -name '*.pm' -o -name '*.xs' -o -path '../examples/*'` ../Perl-Server > gimp-perl.pot~
-	if cmp -s gimp-perl.pot~ gimp-perl.pot; then : ; else mv gimp-perl.pot~ gimp-perl.pot; fi
+	if cmp -s gimp-perl.pot~ gimp-perl.pot; then rm -f gimp-perl.pot~ ; else mv gimp-perl.pot~ gimp-perl.pot; fi
 
 force: