diff --git a/gitweb/INSTALL b/gitweb/INSTALL
index 408f2859d3..a58e6b3c44 100644
--- a/gitweb/INSTALL
+++ b/gitweb/INSTALL
@@ -29,12 +29,11 @@ Requirements
 ------------
 
  - Core git tools
- - Perl
+ - Perl 5.8
  - Perl modules: CGI, Encode, Fcntl, File::Find, File::Basename.
  - web server
 
 The following optional Perl modules are required for extra features
- - Digest::MD5 - for gravatar support
  - CGI::Fast and FCGI - for running gitweb as FastCGI script
  - HTML::TagCloud - for fancy tag cloud in project list view
  - HTTP::Date or Time::ParseDate - to support If-Modified-Since for feeds
diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.perl b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
index 2417057f2b..2594a4badb 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.perl
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
 use File::Find qw();
 use File::Basename qw(basename);
 use Time::HiRes qw(gettimeofday tv_interval);
+use Digest::MD5 qw(md5_hex);
+
 binmode STDOUT, ':utf8';
 
 if (!defined($CGI::VERSION) || $CGI::VERSION < 4.08) {
@@ -490,7 +492,6 @@ sub evaluate_uri {
 	# Currently available providers are gravatar and picon.
 	# If an unknown provider is specified, the feature is disabled.
 
-	# Gravatar depends on Digest::MD5.
 	# Picon currently relies on the indiana.edu database.
 
 	# To enable system wide have in $GITWEB_CONFIG
@@ -1166,18 +1167,8 @@ sub configure_gitweb_features {
 	our @snapshot_fmts = gitweb_get_feature('snapshot');
 	@snapshot_fmts = filter_snapshot_fmts(@snapshot_fmts);
 
-	# check that the avatar feature is set to a known provider name,
-	# and for each provider check if the dependencies are satisfied.
-	# if the provider name is invalid or the dependencies are not met,
-	# reset $git_avatar to the empty string.
 	our ($git_avatar) = gitweb_get_feature('avatar');
-	if ($git_avatar eq 'gravatar') {
-		$git_avatar = '' unless (eval { require Digest::MD5; 1; });
-	} elsif ($git_avatar eq 'picon') {
-		# no dependencies
-	} else {
-		$git_avatar = '';
-	}
+	$git_avatar = '' unless $git_avatar =~ /^(?:gravatar|picon)$/s;
 
 	our @extra_branch_refs = gitweb_get_feature('extra-branch-refs');
 	@extra_branch_refs = filter_and_validate_refs (@extra_branch_refs);
@@ -2167,7 +2158,7 @@ sub gravatar_url {
 	my $size = shift;
 	$avatar_cache{$email} ||=
 		"//www.gravatar.com/avatar/" .
-			Digest::MD5::md5_hex($email) . "?s=";
+			md5_hex($email) . "?s=";
 	return $avatar_cache{$email} . $size;
 }