diff --git a/tests/test-encoding.t b/tests/test-encoding.t
--- a/tests/test-encoding.t
+++ b/tests/test-encoding.t
@@ -15,9 +15,9 @@
   $ hg co
   1 files updated, 0 files merged, 0 files removed, 0 files unresolved
   $ $PYTHON << EOF
-  > f = file('latin-1', 'w'); f.write("latin-1 e' encoded: \xe9"); f.close()
-  > f = file('utf-8', 'w'); f.write("utf-8 e' encoded: \xc3\xa9"); f.close()
-  > f = file('latin-1-tag', 'w'); f.write("\xe9"); f.close()
+  > f = open('latin-1', 'wb'); f.write(b"latin-1 e' encoded: \xe9"); f.close()
+  > f = open('utf-8', 'wb'); f.write(b"utf-8 e' encoded: \xc3\xa9"); f.close()
+  > f = open('latin-1-tag', 'wb'); f.write(b"\xe9"); f.close()
   > EOF
 
 should fail with encoding error