diff --git a/src/test/perl/PostgresNode.pm b/src/test/perl/PostgresNode.pm
index aa7a00c..8f66a9c 100644
--- a/src/test/perl/PostgresNode.pm
+++ b/src/test/perl/PostgresNode.pm
@@ -297,17 +297,16 @@ sub _update_pid
 	# If we can open the PID file, read its first line and that's the PID we
 	# want.  If the file cannot be opened, presumably the server is not
 	# running; don't be noisy in that case.
-	open my $pidfile, $self->data_dir . "/postmaster.pid";
-	if (not defined $pidfile)
+	if (open my $pidfile, $self->data_dir . "/postmaster.pid")
 	{
-		$self->{_pid} = undef;
-		print "# No postmaster PID\n";
+		$self->{_pid} = <$pidfile>;
+		print "# Postmaster PID is $self->{_pid}\n";
+		close $pidfile;
 		return;
 	}
 
-	$self->{_pid} = <$pidfile>;
-	print "# Postmaster PID is $self->{_pid}\n";
-	close $pidfile;
+	$self->{_pid} = undef;
+	print "# No postmaster PID\n";
 }
 
 #