diff -r 230eb9594150 -r 6ef94f24aa82 mercurial/sparse.py
--- a/mercurial/sparse.py	Sat Apr 07 01:37:25 2018 +0900
+++ b/mercurial/sparse.py	Wed Apr 11 22:36:16 2018 +0530
@@ -579,7 +579,7 @@
         # part of the active rules.
         changed = False
         for p in paths:
-            with util.posixfile(util.expandpath(p)) as fh:
+            with util.posixfile(util.expandpath(p), mode='rb') as fh:
                 raw = fh.read()
 
             iincludes, iexcludes, iprofiles = parseconfig(repo.ui, raw)