Index: trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadataConfig.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadataConfig.c	(revision 35798)
+++ trunk/psLib/src/types/psMetadataConfig.c	(revision 35864)
@@ -1210,4 +1210,8 @@
 
     psString file = psSlurpFilename(filename);
+    if (!file) {
+        psError(PS_ERR_IO, true, _("failed to read file '%s'"), filename);
+        return NULL;
+    }
 
     md = psMetadataConfigParse(md, nFail, (char *)file, overwrite);