diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 54586670..636a1b8b 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 29/8/17 started 8.5.9
 - make --fail stop jpeg read on any libjpeg warning, thanks @mceachen
+- don't build enumtypes so often, removing perl as a compile dependancy
 
 2/8/17 started 8.5.8
 - fix transparency detection in merge, thanks Haida
diff --git a/libvips/include/vips/Makefile.am b/libvips/include/vips/Makefile.am
index a76a306e..636b33a3 100644
--- a/libvips/include/vips/Makefile.am
+++ b/libvips/include/vips/Makefile.am
@@ -72,11 +72,7 @@ vips_scan_headers = \
 	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/morphology.h \
 	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/draw.h \
 	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/basic.h \
-	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/version.h \
 	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/object.h
 
-enumtypes.h: $(vips_scan_headers) Makefile
-	glib-mkenums --template enumtemplate \
-		$(vips_scan_headers) > xgen-geth && \
-	( cmp -s xgen-geth enumtypes.h || cp xgen-geth enumtypes.h ) && \
-	rm -f xgen-geth 
+enumtypes.h: $(vips_scan_headers) Makefile.am
+	glib-mkenums --template enumtemplate $(vips_scan_headers) > enumtypes.h
diff --git a/libvips/iofuncs/Makefile.am b/libvips/iofuncs/Makefile.am
index 51b47f75..7e57b716 100644
--- a/libvips/iofuncs/Makefile.am
+++ b/libvips/iofuncs/Makefile.am
@@ -70,11 +70,7 @@ vips_scan_headers = \
 	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/morphology.h \
 	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/draw.h \
 	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/basic.h \
-	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/version.h \
 	${top_srcdir}/libvips/include/vips/object.h
 
-enumtypes.c: $(vips_scan_headers) Makefile
-	glib-mkenums --template enumtemplate \
-		$(vips_scan_headers) > xgen-getc && \
-	( cmp -s xgen-getc enumtypes.c || cp xgen-getc enumtypes.c ) && \
-	rm -f xgen-getc
+enumtypes.c: $(vips_scan_headers) Makefile.am
+	glib-mkenums --template enumtemplate $(vips_scan_headers) > enumtypes.c