diff --git a/pkg/R/yaml.load_file.R b/pkg/R/yaml.load_file.R
index a98bcea..c975cf9 100644
--- a/pkg/R/yaml.load_file.R
+++ b/pkg/R/yaml.load_file.R
@@ -12,6 +12,13 @@ function(input, error.label, ...) {
       error.label <- input[1]
     }
   }
-  yaml.load(paste(readLines(input, encoding = 'UTF-8'), collapse="\n"),
+  
+  if(is.character(input)) {
+    con <- file(input, encoding = 'UTF-8')
+    on.exit(close(con))
+  } else {
+    con <- input
+  }
+  yaml.load(paste(readLines(con), collapse="\n"),
             error.label = error.label, ...)
 }