diff --git a/bin/linkBags b/bin/linkBags
index 807d69e..16a01a0 100644
--- a/bin/linkBags
+++ b/bin/linkBags
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
+use utf8::all;
 use Getopt::Long;
 use Pod::Usage;
 use POSIX;
diff --git a/bin/linkCoco b/bin/linkCoco
index cf9fa00..364099f 100644
--- a/bin/linkCoco
+++ b/bin/linkCoco
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
-use utf8;
+use utf8::all;
 use POSIX;
 use HTML::Entities;
 use links::URLs;
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ use Lingua::Stem;
 use FileHandle;
            
 # encoding pragmas follow any includes like "use"
-use encoding 'utf8';
 use open ':utf8';
 binmode STDIN, ":utf8";
 binmode STDERR, ":utf8";
diff --git a/bin/linkMatch b/bin/linkMatch
index 2e249d8..371d4ab 100644
--- a/bin/linkMatch
+++ b/bin/linkMatch
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
+use utf8::all;
 use Getopt::Long;
 use Pod::Usage;
 use POSIX;
@@ -21,7 +22,6 @@ my $SORTCODE = "LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8; export LC_ALL;" ;
 select((select(STDERR), $| = 1)[0]);
 
 # encoding pragmas follow any includes like "use"
-use encoding 'utf8';
 use open ':utf8';
 binmode STDIN, ":utf8";
 binmode STDERR, ":utf8";
diff --git a/bin/linkParse b/bin/linkParse
index f2bcba3..95a52ba 100644
--- a/bin/linkParse
+++ b/bin/linkParse
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
-use utf8;
+use utf8::all;
 use POSIX;
 use HTML::Entities;
 use links::URLs;
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ use IO::Pipe;
 use File::Tail;
 
 # encoding pragmas follow any includes like "use"
-use encoding 'utf8';
 use open ':utf8';
 binmode STDIN, ":utf8";
 binmode STDERR, ":utf8";
diff --git a/bin/linkRedir b/bin/linkRedir
index 0f0dae3..4a61583 100644
--- a/bin/linkRedir
+++ b/bin/linkRedir
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 #       ignores fragments too
 
 use strict;
+use utf8::all;
 use POSIX;
 use HTML::Entities;
 use links::URLs;
@@ -16,7 +17,6 @@ use Getopt::Long;
 use Pod::Usage;
 
 # encoding pragmas follow any includes like "use"
-use encoding 'utf8';
 use open ':utf8';
 binmode STDOUT, ":utf8";
 binmode STDIN, ":utf8";
diff --git a/bin/linkSent b/bin/linkSent
index 96bdf11..ea1c95a 100644
--- a/bin/linkSent
+++ b/bin/linkSent
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
-use utf8;
+use utf8::all;
 use POSIX;
 #  use this to split lines for sentences
 use Lingua::EN::Sentence qw( get_sentences  );
diff --git a/bin/linkTables b/bin/linkTables
index e29de67..b16fa53 100644
--- a/bin/linkTables
+++ b/bin/linkTables
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
-use utf8;
+use utf8::all;
 use POSIX;
 use HTML::Entities;
 use links::URLs;
diff --git a/bin/linkText b/bin/linkText
index b3e5f68..36d044d 100644
--- a/bin/linkText
+++ b/bin/linkText
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
+use utf8::all;
 use Getopt::Long;
 use Pod::Usage;
 use POSIX;
@@ -21,7 +22,6 @@ my $SORTCODE = "LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8; export LC_ALL;" ;
 select((select(STDERR), $| = 1)[0]);
 
 # encoding pragmas follow any includes like "use"
-use encoding 'utf8';
 use open ':utf8';
 binmode STDIN, ":utf8";
 binmode STDERR, ":utf8";
diff --git a/bin/linkTokens b/bin/linkTokens
index cbf6b56..45b2c32 100644
--- a/bin/linkTokens
+++ b/bin/linkTokens
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
-use utf8;
+use utf8::all;
 use POSIX;
 use HTML::Entities;
 use links::URLs;
diff --git a/bin/wex2link b/bin/wex2link
index feee98d..f5f5666 100644
--- a/bin/wex2link
+++ b/bin/wex2link
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
 use strict;
+use utf8::all;
 use Getopt::Long;
 use Pod::Usage;
 use POSIX;
@@ -40,7 +41,6 @@ select((select(STDERR), $| = 1)[0]);
 
 # encoding pragmas follow any includes like "use"
 # the handles case where I/O is all UTF8, like Wikipedia
-use encoding 'utf8';
 use open ':utf8';
 binmode STDIN, ":utf8";
 binmode STDERR, ":utf8";