diff --git a/src/calibre/debug.py b/src/calibre/debug.py
index 6e67e19fce..f925e4a824 100644
--- a/src/calibre/debug.py
+++ b/src/calibre/debug.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import sys, os, functools
 from calibre.utils.config import OptionParser
 from calibre.constants import iswindows
 from calibre import prints
+from polyglot.builtins import exec_path
 
 
 def get_debug_executable():
@@ -248,8 +249,7 @@ def run_script(path, args):
     g = globals()
     g['__name__'] = '__main__'
     g['__file__'] = ef
-    with open(ef, 'rb') as f:
-        exec(compile(f.read(), ef, 'exec'), g)
+    exec_path(ef, g)
 
 
 def inspect_mobi(path):
diff --git a/src/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi_builder.py b/src/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi_builder.py
index 868a250a30..9e3bbaed88 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi_builder.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/catalogs/epub_mobi_builder.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ from calibre.utils.icu import capitalize, collation_order, sort_key
 from calibre.utils.img import scale_image
 from calibre.utils.localization import get_lang, lang_as_iso639_1
 from calibre.utils.zipfile import ZipFile
-from polyglot.builtins import unicode_type, iteritems
+from polyglot.builtins import unicode_type, iteritems, exec_path
 
 NBSP = u'\u00a0'
 
@@ -4616,9 +4616,7 @@ class CatalogBuilder(object):
         """
 
         templates = {}
-        ef = P('catalog/section_list_templates.py')
-        with open(ef, 'rb') as f:
-            exec(compile(f.read(), ef, 'exec'), templates)
+        exec_path(P('catalog/section_list_templates.py'), templates)
         for name, template in iteritems(templates):
             if name.startswith('by_') and name.endswith('_template'):
                 setattr(self, name, force_unicode(template, 'utf-8'))
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/ipython.py b/src/calibre/utils/ipython.py
index 3bfa0f8054..d42fb4ac66 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/ipython.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/ipython.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ __docformat__ = 'restructuredtext en'
 
 import os, re, sys
 from calibre.constants import iswindows, cache_dir, get_version
+from polyglot.builtins import exec_path
 
 ipydir = os.path.join(cache_dir(), 'ipython')
 
@@ -214,8 +215,7 @@ def ipython(user_ns=None):
     c = Config()
     user_conf = os.path.expanduser('~/.ipython/profile_default/ipython_config.py')
     if os.path.exists(user_conf):
-        with open(user_conf, 'rb') as f:
-            exec(compile(f.read(), user_conf, 'exec'), {'get_config': lambda: c})
+        exec_path(user_conf, {'get_config': lambda: c})
     c.TerminalInteractiveShell.prompts_class = CustomPrompt
     c.InteractiveShellApp.exec_lines = [
         'from __future__ import division, absolute_import, unicode_literals, print_function',
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/rapydscript.py b/src/calibre/utils/rapydscript.py
index b353bacb14..9ae3199036 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/rapydscript.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/rapydscript.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ from calibre.utils.filenames import atomic_rename
 from calibre.utils.terminal import ANSIStream
 from duktape import Context, JSError, to_python
 from lzma.xz import compress, decompress
-from polyglot.builtins import itervalues, range
+from polyglot.builtins import itervalues, range, exec_path
 from polyglot.queue import Empty, Queue
 
 COMPILER_PATH = 'rapydscript/compiler.js.xz'
@@ -203,8 +203,7 @@ def compile_srv():
     base = base_dir()
     iconf = os.path.join(base, 'imgsrc', 'srv', 'generate.py')
     g = {'__file__': iconf}
-    with open(iconf, 'rb') as f:
-        exec(compile(f.read(), iconf, 'exec'), g)
+    exec_path(iconf, g)
     icons = g['merge']().encode('utf-8')
     with lopen(os.path.join(base, 'resources', 'content-server', 'reset.css'), 'rb') as f:
         reset = f.read()
diff --git a/src/polyglot/builtins.py b/src/polyglot/builtins.py
index 24c781e401..23158cc7bf 100644
--- a/src/polyglot/builtins.py
+++ b/src/polyglot/builtins.py
@@ -47,6 +47,14 @@ if is_py3:
         if isinstance(x, bytes):
             x = x.decode('utf-8')
         return x
+
+    def exec_path(path, ctx=None):
+        ctx = ctx or {}
+        with open(path, 'rb') as f:
+            code = f.read()
+        code = compile(code, f.name, 'exec')
+        exec(code, ctx)
+
 else:
     exec("""def reraise(tp, value, tb=None):
     try:
@@ -63,6 +71,7 @@ else:
     unicode_type = unicode
     string_or_bytes = unicode, bytes
     long_type = long
+    exec_path = execfile
 
     def iteritems(d):
         return d.iteritems()