diff --git a/qemu-config.c b/qemu-config.c
index 2de97cde290ddb871f60dd15ec128ec8da389287..ad130fbebe3efd01cb9b3e7963524ffcdc0ba856 100644
--- a/qemu-config.c
+++ b/qemu-config.c
@@ -475,6 +475,10 @@ int qemu_config_parse(FILE *fp, const char *fname)
         error_report("parse error");
         goto out;
     }
+    if (ferror(fp)) {
+        error_report("error reading file");
+        goto out;
+    }
     res = 0;
 out:
     loc_pop(&loc);