diff --git a/src/tools/EPICS/PodHtml.pm b/src/tools/EPICS/PodHtml.pm
index ccfbe4729..785372159 100644
--- a/src/tools/EPICS/PodHtml.pm
+++ b/src/tools/EPICS/PodHtml.pm
@@ -5,6 +5,20 @@ use warnings;
 
 use base 'Pod::Simple::HTML';
 
+sub encode_entities {
+    my ($self, $str) = @_;
+    my %entities = (
+        q{>} => 'gt',
+        q{<} => 'lt',
+        q{'} => '#39',
+        q{"} => 'quot',
+        q{&} => 'amp'
+    );
+    my $ents = join '', keys %entities;
+    $str =~ s/([$ents])/'&' . $entities{$1} . ';'/ge;
+    return $str;
+}
+
 # Translate L<link text|filename/Section name>
 # into <a href="filename.html#Section-name">link text</a>
 
@@ -18,9 +32,11 @@ sub do_pod_link {
     if ($link->tagname eq 'L' and $link->attr('type') eq 'pod') {
         my $to = $link->attr('to');
         my $section = $link->attr('section');
+        $section = $self->section_escape($section)
+            if defined $section and length($section .= ''); # (stringify)
 
-        $ret = $to ? "$to.html" : '';
-        $ret .= "#$section" if $section;
+        $ret = (defined $to and length $to) ? "$to.html" : '';
+        $ret .= "#$section" if defined $section and length $section;
     }
     else {
         # all other links are generated by the parent class
diff --git a/src/tools/EPICS/PodXHtml.pm b/src/tools/EPICS/PodXHtml.pm
index d922c0645..d39212988 100644
--- a/src/tools/EPICS/PodXHtml.pm
+++ b/src/tools/EPICS/PodXHtml.pm
@@ -5,15 +5,34 @@ use warnings;
 
 use base 'Pod::Simple::XHTML';
 
+BEGIN {
+    if ($Pod::Simple::XHTML::VERSION < '3.16') {
+        # encode_entities() wasn't a method, add it
+        our *encode_entities = sub {
+            my ($self, $str) = @_;
+            my %entities = (
+                q{>} => 'gt',
+                q{<} => 'lt',
+                q{'} => '#39',
+                q{"} => 'quot',
+                q{&} => 'amp'
+            );
+            my $ents = join '', keys %entities;
+            $str =~ s/([$ents])/'&' . $entities{$1} . ';'/ge;
+            return $str;
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 # Translate L<link text|filename/Section name>
 # into <a href="filename.html#Section-name">link text</a>
 
 sub resolve_pod_page_link {
     my ($self, $to, $section) = @_;
 
-    my $ret = $to ? "$to.html" : '';
+    my $ret = defined $to ? "$to.html" : '';
     $ret .= '#' . $self->idify($self->encode_entities($section), 1)
-        if $section;
+        if defined $section;
 
     return $ret;
 }
diff --git a/src/tools/dbdToHtml.pl b/src/tools/dbdToHtml.pl
index afbb0a601..0bfeb19a3 100644
--- a/src/tools/dbdToHtml.pl
+++ b/src/tools/dbdToHtml.pl
@@ -19,26 +19,9 @@ use EPICS::Readfile;
 
 BEGIN {
     $::XHTML = eval "require EPICS::PodXHtml; 1";
-    $::ENTITIES = eval "require HTML::Entities; 1";
     if (!$::XHTML) {
         require EPICS::PodHtml;
     }
-    if (!$::ENTITIES) {
-        my %entities = (
-            q{>} => 'gt',
-            q{<} => 'lt',
-            q{'} => '#39',
-            q{"} => 'quot',
-            q{&} => 'amp',
-        );
-
-        sub encode_entities {
-            my $str = shift;
-            my $ents = join '', keys %entities;
-            $str =~ s/([ $ents ])/'&' . ($entities{$1} || sprintf '#x%X', ord $1) . ';'/xge;
-            return $str;
-        }
-    }
 }
 
 use Pod::Usage;
@@ -190,7 +173,7 @@ my $pod = join "\n", '=for html <div class="pod">', '',
     } $dbd->pod,
     '=for html </div>', '';
 
-$podHtml->force_title(encode_entities($title));
+$podHtml->force_title($podHtml->encode_entities($title));
 $podHtml->perldoc_url_prefix('');
 $podHtml->perldoc_url_postfix('.html');
 $podHtml->output_fh($out);