diff --git a/configure/CONFIG b/configure/CONFIG
index 153e69e8c..fab3c245f 100644
--- a/configure/CONFIG
+++ b/configure/CONFIG
@@ -58,12 +58,8 @@ include $(CONFIG)/CONFIG_BASE_VERSION
 include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG.$(EPICS_HOST_ARCH).Common
 -include $(CONFIG)/os/CONFIG_SITE.$(EPICS_HOST_ARCH).Common
 
-# Parse configure/RELEASE
-# except when building Base itself, where this file is empty,
-# and would error in src/tools/ anyway.
-ifndef BASE_TOP
+# Parse configure/RELEASE to find all upstream modules
 RELEASE_TOPS := $(shell $(CONVERTRELEASE) -T $(TOP) releaseTops)
-endif
 
 ifdef T_A
 
diff --git a/src/tools/convertRelease.pl b/src/tools/convertRelease.pl
index 9ccb6f55d..87a1267c0 100644
--- a/src/tools/convertRelease.pl
+++ b/src/tools/convertRelease.pl
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ use Getopt::Std;
 $Getopt::Std::STANDARD_HELP_VERSION = 1;
 
 use FindBin qw($Bin);
-use lib ("$Bin/../../lib/perl");
+use lib ("$Bin/../../lib/perl", $Bin);
 
 use EPICS::Path;
 use EPICS::Release;