diff --git a/doc/texi2pod.pl b/doc/texi2pod.pl
old mode 100755
new mode 100644
index 8fabac6d9a..f972671937
--- a/doc/texi2pod.pl
+++ b/doc/texi2pod.pl
@@ -329,6 +329,8 @@ $chapters{FOOTNOTES} .= "=back\n" if exists $chapters{FOOTNOTES};
 
 unshift @chapters_sequence, "NAME";
 for $chapter (@chapters_sequence) {
+    # always use utf8
+    print "=encoding utf8\n";
     if (exists $chapters{$chapter}) {
         $head = uc($chapter);
         print "=head1 $head\n\n";