diff --git a/gclient.py b/gclient.py
index 128d334ee..c347fcb24 100755
--- a/gclient.py
+++ b/gclient.py
@@ -2981,8 +2981,8 @@ def CMDsetdep(parser, args):
     else:
       gclient_eval.SetRevision(local_scope, name, value)
 
-  with open(options.deps_file, 'w') as f:
-    f.write(gclient_eval.RenderDEPSFile(local_scope))
+  with open(options.deps_file, 'wb') as f:
+    f.write(gclient_eval.RenderDEPSFile(local_scope).encode('utf-8'))
 
 
 @metrics.collector.collect_metrics('gclient verify')