diff --git a/contrib/check-config.py b/contrib/check-config.py
--- a/contrib/check-config.py
+++ b/contrib/check-config.py
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
         confsect = ''
         carryover = ''
         linenum = 0
-        for l in open(f):
+        for l in open(f, 'rb'):
             linenum += 1
 
             # check topic-like bits