diff --git a/doc/api.html b/doc/api.html
index 4641471a3f..be20f95dfa 100644
--- a/doc/api.html
+++ b/doc/api.html
@@ -874,7 +874,7 @@ on error: no parameters.
 </ul></div>
 </dd>
 <dt class="hdlist1">
-<tt>node.fs.cat(filename, encoding)</tt>
+<tt>node.fs.cat(filename, encoding="utf8")</tt>
 </dt>
 <dd>
 <p>
@@ -882,7 +882,7 @@ Outputs the entire contents of a file. Example:
 </p>
 <div class="listingblock">
 <div class="content">
-<pre><tt>node.fs.cat("/etc/passwd", "utf8").addCallback(function (content) {
+<pre><tt>node.fs.cat("/etc/passwd").addCallback(function (content) {
   puts(content);
 });</tt></pre>
 </div></div>
@@ -1906,7 +1906,7 @@ init (Handle&lt;Object&gt; target)
 <div id="footer">
 <div id="footer-text">
 Version 0.1.10<br />
-Last updated 2009-09-15 22:31:35 CEST
+Last updated 2009-09-15 22:34:24 CEST
 </div>
 </div>
 </body>
diff --git a/doc/api.txt b/doc/api.txt
index 1209d51e59..8a1e818feb 100644
--- a/doc/api.txt
+++ b/doc/api.txt
@@ -525,12 +525,12 @@ reading from in the file.
 - on success: returns +data, bytes_read+, what was read from the file.
 - on error: no parameters.
 
-+node.fs.cat(filename, encoding)+::
++node.fs.cat(filename, encoding="utf8")+::
 
 Outputs the entire contents of a file. Example:
 +
 --------------------------------
-node.fs.cat("/etc/passwd", "utf8").addCallback(function (content) {
+node.fs.cat("/etc/passwd").addCallback(function (content) {
   puts(content);
 });
 --------------------------------
diff --git a/doc/node.1 b/doc/node.1
index c010440622..0332a29e0b 100644
--- a/doc/node.1
+++ b/doc/node.1
@@ -783,13 +783,13 @@ data, bytes_read, what was read from the file\.
 .RE
 .RE
 .PP
-node\.fs\.cat(filename, encoding)
+node\.fs\.cat(filename, encoding="utf8")
 .RS 4
 Outputs the entire contents of a file\. Example:
 .sp
 .RS 4
 .nf
-node\.fs\.cat("/etc/passwd", "utf8")\.addCallback(function (content) {
+node\.fs\.cat("/etc/passwd")\.addCallback(function (content) {
   puts(content);
 });
 .fi
diff --git a/src/file.js b/src/file.js
index 25a8f89f2b..e02e19a31a 100644
--- a/src/file.js
+++ b/src/file.js
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ node.fs.cat = function (path, encoding) {
   var open_promise = node.fs.open(path, node.O_RDONLY, 0666);
   var cat_promise = new node.Promise();
 
+  encoding = encoding || "utf8";
+
   open_promise.addErrback(function () { cat_promise.emitError(); });
   open_promise.addCallback(function (fd) {
     var content = (encoding === "raw" ? [] : "");
diff --git a/src/http.js b/src/http.js
index 777bfd58fc..ea558cd1f5 100644
--- a/src/http.js
+++ b/src/http.js
@@ -550,6 +550,8 @@ node.http.Client.prototype.put = function (uri, headers) {
 node.http.cat = function (url, encoding) {
   var promise = new node.Promise();
 
+  encoding = encoding || "utf8";
+
   var uri = node.http.parseUri(url);
   var client = node.http.createClient(uri.port || 80, uri.host);
   var req = client.get(uri.path || "/");
diff --git a/src/node.js b/src/node.js
index 7de2bdf977..19b4e263fa 100644
--- a/src/node.js
+++ b/src/node.js
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ node.Module.prototype.loadScript = function (callback) {
   node.assert(self.loadPromise === null);
   self.loadPromise = loadPromise;
 
-  var cat_promise = node.cat(self.filename, "utf8");
+  var cat_promise = node.cat(self.filename);
 
   cat_promise.addErrback(function () {
     node.stdio.writeError("Error reading " + self.filename + "\n");