diff --git a/src/libstd/io.rs b/src/libstd/io.rs
index f750f3f3195e7..55e60f03ea9c6 100644
--- a/src/libstd/io.rs
+++ b/src/libstd/io.rs
@@ -1041,7 +1041,7 @@ pub fn stdin() -> @Reader {
 
 pub fn file_reader(path: &Path) -> Result<@Reader, ~str> {
     let f = do path.to_str().as_c_str |pathbuf| {
-        do "r".as_c_str |modebuf| {
+        do "rb".as_c_str |modebuf| {
             unsafe { libc::fopen(pathbuf, modebuf as *libc::c_char) }
         }
     };