diff --git a/gitweb/gitweb.perl b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
index fc6d5dd522..ccd14e0e30 100755
--- a/gitweb/gitweb.perl
+++ b/gitweb/gitweb.perl
@@ -728,9 +728,11 @@ our $per_request_config = 1;
 sub read_config_file {
 	my $filename = shift;
 	return unless defined $filename;
-	# die if there are errors parsing config file
 	if (-e $filename) {
 		do $filename;
+		# die if there is a problem accessing the file
+		die $! if $!;
+		# die if there are errors parsing config file
 		die $@ if $@;
 		return 1;
 	}