diff --git a/.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml b/.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml
index 0d8a7e78..3c4bf74c 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/codeql-analysis.yml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ jobs:
     - name: Initialize CodeQL
       uses: github/codeql-action/init@v3
 
-    - run: sudo apt install libipc-run3-perl libipc-system-simple-perl libfile-slurp-perl libfile-which-perl pandoc
+    - run: sudo apt install libipc-run3-perl pandoc
     - run: |
             ./bootstrap
             ./configure
diff --git a/dev-bin/make-man-pages.pl b/dev-bin/make-man-pages.pl
index 2b6fc853..8d308baf 100755
--- a/dev-bin/make-man-pages.pl
+++ b/dev-bin/make-man-pages.pl
@@ -6,8 +6,6 @@
 use FindBin qw( $Bin );
 
 use File::Path qw( mkpath );
-use File::Slurp qw( edit_file read_file );
-use File::Which qw( which );
 
 sub main {
     my $target = shift || "$Bin/..";
@@ -15,7 +13,7 @@ sub main {
     my @translators = qw ( lowdown pandoc );
     my $translator;
     foreach my $p (@translators) {
-        if ( defined which($p) ) {
+        if ( _which($p) ) {
             $translator = $p;
             last;
         }
@@ -32,6 +30,14 @@ sub main {
     _make_man( $translator, $target, 'mmdblookup', 1 );
 }
 
+sub _which {
+    my $program = shift;
+    for my $path ( split /:/, $ENV{PATH} ) {
+        return 1 if -x "$path/$program";
+    }
+    return 0;
+}
+
 sub _make_man {
     my $translator = shift;
     my $target     = shift;
@@ -53,7 +59,7 @@ sub _make_man {
             '-M', "section:$section",
             $input,
             '-o', $output,
-        ) == 0 or die "Failed to run pandoc: $!";
+        ) == 0 or die "Failed to run pandoc: $?";
         _pandoc_postprocess($output);
     }
     elsif ( $translator eq 'lowdown' ) {
@@ -66,14 +72,21 @@ sub _make_man {
             '-M', "section:$section",
             $input,
             '-o', $output,
-        ) == 0 or die "Failed to run lowdown: $!";
+        ) == 0 or die "Failed to run lowdown: $?";
     }
 }
 
 sub _make_lib_man_links {
     my $target = shift;
 
-    my $header = read_file("$Bin/../include/maxminddb.h");
+    open my $header_fh, '<', "$Bin/../include/maxminddb.h"
+        or die "Failed to open header file: $!";
+    my $header = do { local $/; <$header_fh> };
+
+    die "Error reading file header file: $!" unless defined $header;
+
+    close $header_fh or die "Failed to close header file: $!";
+
     for my $proto ( $header =~ /^ *extern.+?(MMDB_\w+)\(/gsm ) {
         open my $fh, '>', "$target/man/man3/$proto.3"
             or die "Failed to open file: $!";
@@ -88,13 +101,20 @@ sub _make_lib_man_links {
 sub _pandoc_postprocess {
     my $file = shift;
 
-    edit_file(
-        sub {
-            s/^\.IP\n\.nf/.IP "" 4\n.nf/gm;
-            s/(Automatically generated by Pandoc)(.+)$/$1/m;
-        },
-        $file,
-    );
+    open my $fh, '<', $file or die "Failed to open man file for reading: $!";
+    my @lines = <$fh>;
+    die "Error when reading man page: $!" if $!;
+
+    close $fh or die "Failed to close file: $!";
+
+    for my $line (@lines) {
+        $line =~ s/^\.IP\n\.nf/.IP "" 4\n.nf/gm;
+        $line =~ s/(Automatically generated by Pandoc)(.+)$/$1/m;
+    }
+
+    open $fh, '>', $file or die "Failed to open file for writing: $!";
+    print $fh @lines or die "Failed to write to file: $!";
+    close $fh        or die "Failed to close file: $!";
 }
 
 main(shift);