diff --git a/misc/export_records.pl b/misc/export_records.pl
index 284e12da5b..cfb163ecdc 100755
--- a/misc/export_records.pl
+++ b/misc/export_records.pl
@@ -173,8 +173,9 @@ elsif ( $record_type eq 'auths' ) {
 }
 
 @record_ids = uniq @record_ids;
-if ( @record_ids and my $id_list_file ) {
-    my @filter_record_ids = <$id_list_file>;
+if ( @record_ids and $id_list_file ) {
+    open my $fh, '<', $id_list_file or die "Cannot open file $id_list_file ($!)";
+    my @filter_record_ids = <$fh>;
     @filter_record_ids = map { my $id = $_; $id =~ s/[\r\n]*$//; $id } @filter_record_ids;
     # intersection
     my %record_ids = map { $_ => 1 } @record_ids;