diff --git a/src/util/xmlpool/gen_xmlpool.py b/src/util/xmlpool/gen_xmlpool.py
index 886c1854f3a..b0db183854a 100644
--- a/src/util/xmlpool/gen_xmlpool.py
+++ b/src/util/xmlpool/gen_xmlpool.py
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ print("/***********************************************************************\
 
 # Process the options template and generate options.h with all
 # translations.
-template = file (template_header_path, "r")
+template = open (template_header_path, "r")
 descMatches = []
 for line in template:
     if len(descMatches) > 0:
@@ -199,6 +199,8 @@ for line in template:
     else:
         print(line, end='')
 
+template.close()
+
 if len(descMatches) > 0:
     sys.stderr.write ("Warning: unterminated description at end of file.\n")
     expandMatches (descMatches, translations)