diff --git a/scripts/build-remote.pl.in b/scripts/build-remote.pl.in
index 2eb339675..faf1616e9 100755
--- a/scripts/build-remote.pl.in
+++ b/scripts/build-remote.pl.in
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
+use utf8;
 use Fcntl qw(:DEFAULT :flock);
 use English '-no_match_vars';
 use IO::Handle;
@@ -9,6 +10,8 @@ use Nix::CopyClosure;
 use Nix::Store;
 no warnings('once');
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
+
 
 # General operation:
 #
diff --git a/scripts/download-from-binary-cache.pl.in b/scripts/download-from-binary-cache.pl.in
index e09b051a4..cdce8eb74 100644
--- a/scripts/download-from-binary-cache.pl.in
+++ b/scripts/download-from-binary-cache.pl.in
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
+use utf8;
 use DBI;
 use DBD::SQLite;
 use File::Basename;
@@ -12,6 +13,7 @@ use WWW::Curl::Easy;
 use WWW::Curl::Multi;
 use strict;
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
 
 Nix::Config::readConfig;
 
diff --git a/scripts/download-using-manifests.pl.in b/scripts/download-using-manifests.pl.in
index e849a930e..591cd6b43 100755
--- a/scripts/download-using-manifests.pl.in
+++ b/scripts/download-using-manifests.pl.in
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ use Nix::Utils;
 use POSIX qw(strftime);
 
 STDOUT->autoflush(1);
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
 
 my $logFile = "$Nix::Config::logDir/downloads";
 
diff --git a/scripts/nix-build.in b/scripts/nix-build.in
index fb92a4909..f8cf318ff 100755
--- a/scripts/nix-build.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-build.in
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
+use utf8;
 use strict;
 use Nix::Config;
 use Nix::Store;
 use Nix::Utils;
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
 
 my $dryRun = 0;
 my $verbose = 0;
diff --git a/scripts/nix-channel.in b/scripts/nix-channel.in
index 407f27490..e45b91338 100755
--- a/scripts/nix-channel.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-channel.in
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
+use utf8;
 use strict;
 use File::Basename;
 use File::Path qw(mkpath);
 use Nix::Config;
 use Nix::Manifest;
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
+
 Nix::Config::readConfig;
 
 my $manifestDir = $Nix::Config::manifestDir;
diff --git a/scripts/nix-copy-closure.in b/scripts/nix-copy-closure.in
index 10c2a9171..f4d186256 100755
--- a/scripts/nix-copy-closure.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-copy-closure.in
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ use Nix::Store;
 use Nix::CopyClosure;
 use List::Util qw(sum);
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
 
 if (scalar @ARGV < 1) {
     print STDERR <<EOF
diff --git a/scripts/nix-install-package.in b/scripts/nix-install-package.in
index 9340f1b72..23f6efbcd 100755
--- a/scripts/nix-install-package.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-install-package.in
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
+use utf8;
 use strict;
 use Nix::Config;
 use Nix::Utils;
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
+
 
 # Parse the command line arguments.
 my @args = @ARGV;
diff --git a/scripts/nix-prefetch-url.in b/scripts/nix-prefetch-url.in
index 869d29c39..6effbe208 100755
--- a/scripts/nix-prefetch-url.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-prefetch-url.in
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
+use utf8;
 use strict;
 use File::Basename;
 use File::stat;
@@ -7,6 +8,9 @@ use Nix::Store;
 use Nix::Config;
 use Nix::Utils;
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
+
+
 my $hashType = $ENV{'NIX_HASH_ALGO'} || "sha256"; # obsolete
 my $cacheDir = $ENV{'NIX_DOWNLOAD_CACHE'};
 
diff --git a/scripts/nix-pull.in b/scripts/nix-pull.in
index f9785d8e5..995b50935 100755
--- a/scripts/nix-pull.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-pull.in
@@ -1,9 +1,12 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
+use utf8;
 use strict;
 use Nix::Config;
 use Nix::Manifest;
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
+
 my $manifestDir = $Nix::Config::manifestDir;
 
 
diff --git a/scripts/nix-push.in b/scripts/nix-push.in
index b0cb6d0da..c6d187704 100755
--- a/scripts/nix-push.in
+++ b/scripts/nix-push.in
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 #! @perl@ -w @perlFlags@
 
+use utf8;
 use strict;
 use File::Basename;
 use File::Path qw(mkpath);
@@ -11,6 +12,8 @@ use Nix::Manifest;
 use Nix::Utils;
 use Nix::Crypto;
 
+binmode STDERR, ":encoding(utf8)";
+
 my $tmpDir = mkTempDir("nix-push");
 
 my $nixExpr = "$tmpDir/create-nars.nix";