diff --git a/src/app/main.cpp b/src/app/main.cpp
index 212e63402406..42fa5447b526 100644
--- a/src/app/main.cpp
+++ b/src/app/main.cpp
@@ -1386,7 +1386,7 @@ int main( int argc, char *argv[] )
     //replace backslashes with forward slashes
     pythonfile.replace( '\\', '/' );
 #endif
-    QgsPythonRunner::run( QStringLiteral( "exec(open('%1').read())" ).arg( pythonfile ) );
+    QgsPythonRunner::run( QStringLiteral( "with open('%1','r') as f: exec(f.read())" ).arg( pythonfile ) );
   }
 
   /////////////////////////////////`////////////////////////////////////