--- ../../../Python-3.1b1-a/Lib/distutils/text_file.py	2009-02-22 21:05:16.000000000 +0100
+++ text_file.py	2009-05-12 09:25:40.000000000 +0200
@@ -111,7 +111,20 @@
         """Open a new file named 'filename'.  This overrides both the
            'filename' and 'file' arguments to the constructor."""
         self.filename = filename
-        self.file = io.open(self.filename, 'r')
+
+        # importing locale may fail during build
+        try:
+            import locale
+            encoding=locale.getpreferredencoding()
+        except ImportError:
+            import sys
+            encoding=sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+
+            # sys.getfilesystemencoding always works, but may return None
+            if encoding is None:
+                encoding='ascii'
+
+        self.file = io.open(self.filename, 'r', encoding=encoding)
         self.current_line = 0
 
     def close(self):