diff --git a/src/avrdude/config.c b/src/avrdude/config.c
index 08193cfc5..558700547 100644
--- a/src/avrdude/config.c
+++ b/src/avrdude/config.c
@@ -325,7 +325,7 @@ int read_config(const char * file)
   FILE * f;
   int r;
 
-  f = fopen(file, "r");
+  f = fopen_utf8(file, "r");
   if (f == NULL) {
     avrdude_message(MSG_INFO, "%s: can't open config file \"%s\": %s\n",
             progname, file, strerror(errno));
diff --git a/src/avrdude/fileio.c b/src/avrdude/fileio.c
index 708159295..dcd0d6a66 100644
--- a/src/avrdude/fileio.c
+++ b/src/avrdude/fileio.c
@@ -102,9 +102,8 @@ static int fmt_autodetect(char * fname, unsigned section);
 
 
 
-static FILE *fopen_and_seek(const char *filename, const char *mode, unsigned section)
+FILE *fopen_utf8(const char *filename, const char *mode)
 {
-  FILE *file;
   // On Windows we need to convert the filename to UTF-16
 #if defined(WIN32NATIVE)
   static wchar_t fname_buffer[PATH_MAX];
@@ -113,10 +112,15 @@ static FILE *fopen_and_seek(const char *filename, const char *mode, unsigned sec
   if (MultiByteToWideChar(CP_UTF8, 0, filename, -1, fname_buffer, PATH_MAX) == 0) { return NULL; }
   if (MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, mode, -1, mode_buffer, MAX_MODE_LEN) == 0) { return NULL; }
 
-  file = _wfopen(fname_buffer, mode_buffer);
+  return _wfopen(fname_buffer, mode_buffer);
 #else
-  file = fopen(filename, mode);
+  return fopen(filename, mode);
 #endif
+}
+
+static FILE *fopen_and_seek(const char *filename, const char *mode, unsigned section)
+{
+  FILE *file = fopen_utf8(filename, mode);
 
   if (file == NULL) {
     return NULL;
diff --git a/src/avrdude/libavrdude.h b/src/avrdude/libavrdude.h
index aef792476..69c17ea7b 100644
--- a/src/avrdude/libavrdude.h
+++ b/src/avrdude/libavrdude.h
@@ -820,6 +820,8 @@ extern "C" {
 
 char * fmtstr(FILEFMT format);
 
+FILE *fopen_utf8(const char *filename, const char *mode);
+
 int fileio(int op, char * filename, FILEFMT format,
            struct avrpart * p, char * memtype, int size, unsigned section);