diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index e0343d50af..9bb51013e8 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+Wed Jul 28 16:17:29 PDT 1999 Manish Singh <yosh@gimp.org>
+
+	* tools/pdbgen/pdbgen.pl: eval "defined $_" -> eval "defined scalar $_"
+	(portability nit)
+
 Wed Jul 28 15:03:28 PDT 1999 Manish Singh <yosh@gimp.org>
 
 	* plug-ins/common/plugin-defs.pl: add sample_colorize and
diff --git a/tools/pdbgen/pdbgen.pl b/tools/pdbgen/pdbgen.pl
index 536824cc3e..7d58ec775c 100755
--- a/tools/pdbgen/pdbgen.pl
+++ b/tools/pdbgen/pdbgen.pl
@@ -54,9 +54,9 @@ $evalcode = <<'CODE';
 	my $dest = shift;
 
 	foreach (@_) {
-	    if (eval "defined $_") {
+	    if (eval "defined scalar $_") {
 		(my $var = $_) =~ s/^(\W)//;
-		for ($1) {
+		 for ($1) {
 		    /\$/ && do { $$dest->{$var} =   $$var  ; last; };
 		    /\@/ && do { $$dest->{$var} = [ @$var ]; last; };
 		    /\%/ && do { $$dest->{$var} = { %$var }; last; };