diff --git a/llvm/utils/git-svn/git-llvm b/llvm/utils/git-svn/git-llvm
index 70b63f1..0d566da 100755
--- a/llvm/utils/git-svn/git-llvm
+++ b/llvm/utils/git-svn/git-llvm
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@
 
     start = time.time()
     p = subprocess.Popen(cmd, cwd=cwd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=err_pipe,
-                         stdin=subprocess.PIPE)
+                         stdin=subprocess.PIPE, universal_newlines=True)
     stdout, stderr = p.communicate(input=stdin)
     elapsed = time.time() - start