lib/PublicInbox/HlMod.pm   | 2 ++
 lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm | 3 +--

diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/HlMod.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/HlMod.pm
index 13f27d19cb40b85e8d5bbc33a22525c31576a551..014d82fdbc52cb9293a96e0a8829154bb0e85ad3 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/HlMod.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/HlMod.pm
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ package PublicInbox::HlMod;
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use highlight; # SWIG-generated stuff
+use PublicInbox::Hval qw(src_escape);
 my $hl;
 
 sub _parse_filetypes ($) {
@@ -122,6 +123,7 @@ 	# we assume $$str is valid UTF-8, but the SWIG binding doesn't
 	# know that, so ensure it's marked as UTF-8 even if it isnt...
 	my $out = $gen->generateString($$str);
 	utf8::decode($out);
+	src_escape($out);
 	\$out;
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm
index 0fb6b64e49e8b8d2e9068981c864537a63334830..f6a769427dfae230a1bd9a3261063768852af999 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ use warnings;
 use PublicInbox::SolverGit;
 use PublicInbox::WwwStream;
 use PublicInbox::Linkify;
-use PublicInbox::Hval qw(ascii_html to_filename src_escape);
+use PublicInbox::Hval qw(ascii_html to_filename);
 my $hl = eval {
 	require PublicInbox::HlMod;
 	PublicInbox::HlMod->new;
@@ -123,7 +123,6 @@
 	$l->linkify_1($$blob);
 	my $ok = $hl->do_hl($blob, $path) if $hl;
 	if ($ok) {
-		src_escape($$ok);
 		$blob = $ok;
 	} else {
 		$$blob = ascii_html($$blob);