diff --git a/earwigbot/wiki/site.py b/earwigbot/wiki/site.py
index 772dfe7..dd06ea6 100644
--- a/earwigbot/wiki/site.py
+++ b/earwigbot/wiki/site.py
@@ -520,6 +520,8 @@ class Site(object):
 
         if "read_default_file" not in args and "user" not in args and "passwd" not in args:
             args["read_default_file"] = expanduser("~/.my.cnf")
+        elif "read_default_file" in args:
+            args["read_default_file"] = expanduser(args["read_default_file"])
 
         if "autoping" not in args:
             args["autoping"] = True