diff --git a/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c b/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c
index b53d6eb9cc..cb8c7450d9 100644
--- a/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c
+++ b/src/bin/initdb/initdb.c
@@ -491,15 +491,7 @@ readfile(const char *path)
 	char	   *buffer;
 	int			c;
 
-#ifdef WIN32
-	/*
-	 * On Windows, we have to open the file in text mode so that carriage
-	 * returns are stripped.
-	 */
-	if ((infile = fopen(path, "rt")) == NULL)
-#else
 	if ((infile = fopen(path, "r")) == NULL)
-#endif
 	{
 		fprintf(stderr, _("%s: could not open file \"%s\" for reading: %s\n"),
 				progname, path, strerror(errno));
diff --git a/src/port/open.c b/src/port/open.c
index a3ad946a60..63a7a1d2fb 100644
--- a/src/port/open.c
+++ b/src/port/open.c
@@ -71,6 +71,19 @@ pgwin32_open(const char *fileName, int fileFlags,...)
 						 _O_SHORT_LIVED | O_DSYNC | O_DIRECT |
 						 (O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_EXCL) | (O_TEXT | O_BINARY))) == fileFlags);
 
+#ifdef FRONTEND
+	/*
+	 * Since PostgreSQL 12, those concurrent-safe versions of open() and
+	 * fopen() can be used by frontends, having as side-effect to switch
+	 * the file-transaction mode from O_TEXT to O_BINARY if none is
+	 * specified.  Caller may want to enforce the binary or text mode,
+	 * but if nothing is defined make sure that the default mode maps
+	 * with what versions older than 12 have been doing.
+	 */
+	if ((fileFlags & O_BINARY) == 0)
+		fileFlags |= O_TEXT;
+#endif
+
 	sa.nLength = sizeof(sa);
 	sa.bInheritHandle = TRUE;
 	sa.lpSecurityDescriptor = NULL;