diff --git a/plug-ins/perl/Changes b/plug-ins/perl/Changes
index 02e3909bb1..9fd11e944a 100644
--- a/plug-ins/perl/Changes
+++ b/plug-ins/perl/Changes
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ Revision history for Gimp-Perl extension.
         - applied edit_fill change. Boy we need default agruments soon!
 	- pxgettext exits with success instead of error on version check,
 	  so the build doesn't completely die. (Yosh)
+        - fixed examples/image_tile to use die instead of exit.
 
 1.19  Thu Jan  6 00:21:58 CET 2000
         - used N_ to mark all the menu paths, since gimp now tries to
diff --git a/plug-ins/perl/examples/image_tile b/plug-ins/perl/examples/image_tile
index 1a0d2710da..b8c7ea039b 100755
--- a/plug-ins/perl/examples/image_tile
+++ b/plug-ins/perl/examples/image_tile
@@ -63,8 +63,7 @@ sub perl_fu_image_tile {
   if (! -d $TOP) {
     $TOP = "/tmp";
     if (! -d $TOP) {
-      gimp_message("Don't know where to put temporary files!");
-      exit(1);
+      die "Don't know where to put temporary files!";
     }
   }
 
@@ -96,8 +95,7 @@ sub perl_fu_image_tile {
   if (!defined($db = tie(%tile_cache, 'DB_File',
 	    $cache_file, O_RDWR|O_CREAT,
 	    0644, $DB_HASH))) {
-    gimp_message("Failed to create tile sample database: $!");
-    exit(0);
+    die "Failed to create tile sample database: $!";
   }
 
   # The other cache file contains image re-use weights, which only get
@@ -105,8 +103,7 @@ sub perl_fu_image_tile {
   my $wt_file = "$TOP/image_tile.$$";
   if (!defined($wdb=tie(%wt_cache,'DB_File',$wt_file,
 			O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC,0644,$DB_HASH))) {
-    gimp_message("Failed to create weight database: $!");
-    exit(0);
+    die "Failed to create weight database: $!";
   }
 
   # Loop over directories, looking for images
@@ -164,8 +161,7 @@ sub perl_fu_image_tile {
   }
 
   if ($subimages == 0) {
-    gimp_message("$0: No subimages loaded.");
-    exit(0);
+    die "$0: No subimages loaded.";
   }
 
   $db->sync(0);
diff --git a/plug-ins/perl/po/ChangeLog b/plug-ins/perl/po/ChangeLog
index 90c3714a18..e64d0fdafd 100644
--- a/plug-ins/perl/po/ChangeLog
+++ b/plug-ins/perl/po/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+Wed Apr  5 06:02:58 CEST 2000  Marc Lehmann <pcg@goof.com>
+
+        * Makefile.PL: possible fix for #8148. basically, nothing at all
+        will be done when MSGFMT == "no" or empty. Otherwise, msgmerge is
+        assumed to be in the path somewhere (just like po/Makefile.in.in
+        btw).
+
 2000-04-03  Sven Neumann  <sven@gimp.org>
 
 	* de.po: more updates
diff --git a/plug-ins/perl/po/Makefile.PL b/plug-ins/perl/po/Makefile.PL
index be66f22bc2..9b0a15311e 100644
--- a/plug-ins/perl/po/Makefile.PL
+++ b/plug-ins/perl/po/Makefile.PL
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ use ExtUtils::MakeMaker;
 do '../config.pl';
 
 print "Portable message objects...";
-if ($MSGFMT =~ /./) {
+if ($MSGFMT =~ /./ && $MSGFMT ne "no") {
    for (<*.po>) {
       my ($po) = /(.*)\.po$/;
       print " $po";
@@ -13,8 +13,10 @@ if ($MSGFMT =~ /./) {
       $uninstall .= "	\$(RM_F) \$(datadir)/locale/$po/LC_MESSAGES/gimp-perl.mo\n";
       $mofiles   .= " $po.gmo";
    }
+   $alltarget = "update-po";
 } else {
    print " skipped";
+   $alltarget = "";
 }
 print "\n";
 
@@ -37,7 +39,7 @@ datadir  = $datadir
 	-msgmerge -w 83 \$*.po gimp-perl.pot >\$*.po~
 	-if cmp -s \$*.po~ \$*.po; then : ; else mv \$*.po~ \$*.po; fi
 
-all :: update-gmo
+all :: $alltarget
 
 update-gmo: $mofiles