diff --git a/doc/xml/AdminRef/generate-xml.pl b/doc/xml/AdminRef/generate-xml.pl
index f414bc699e..008f80fb08 100755
--- a/doc/xml/AdminRef/generate-xml.pl
+++ b/doc/xml/AdminRef/generate-xml.pl
@@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ open(ENTITIES, ">entities.dtd") || die;
 
 foreach $section (@sections) {
     printf "generating section %s...\n", $section;
+    my @entities = ();
 
     mkdir(sprintf "sect%d", $section);
     opendir($DIR, sprintf "%s/pod%d", $doc_man_pages, $section) || die;
-    open(SECT, sprintf ">sect%d.xml", $section) || die;
     while ($podfile = readdir($DIR)) {
 	next unless $podfile =~ /\.pod$/;
 
@@ -23,14 +23,24 @@ foreach $section (@sections) {
 
 	printf "pod2refentry < %s > %s\n", $podfile, $xmlfile;
 
-	system(sprintf "./pod2refentry --section=%d < %s/pod%d/%s > sect%d/%s",
+	my $rc = system(sprintf "./pod2refentry --section=%d < %s/pod%d/%s > sect%d/%s",
 	    $section, $doc_man_pages, $section, $podfile, $section, $xmlfile);
+	if ($rc != 0) {
+	    die "Failed to generate sect${section}/${xmlfile}: $rc\n";
+	}
 
 	printf ENTITIES "<!ENTITY %s%s SYSTEM \"sect%d/%s\">\n",
 	    $entity, $section, $section, $xmlfile;
-	printf SECT "&%s%s;\n", $entity, $section;
+
+	push(@entities, $entity);
     }
     closedir($DIR);
+
+    open(SECT, sprintf ">sect%d.xml", $section) || die;
+    foreach $entity (sort(@entities)) {
+	printf SECT "&%s%s;\n", $entity, $section;
+    }
+
     close(SECT);
 }