diff --git a/src/git-command-manager.ts b/src/git-command-manager.ts
index b5cc5721..47e3937f 100644
--- a/src/git-command-manager.ts
+++ b/src/git-command-manager.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,8 @@ export type Commit = {
 }
 
 export type ExecOpts = {
-  allowAllExitCodes?: boolean,
+  allowAllExitCodes?: boolean
+  encoding?: 'utf8' | 'base64'
 }
 
 export class GitCommandManager {
@@ -282,9 +283,9 @@ export class GitCommandManager {
     return output.stdout.trim()
   }
 
-  async showFileAtRef(ref: string, path: string): Promise<string> {
+  async showFileAtRefBase64(ref: string, path: string): Promise<string> {
     const args = ['show', `${ref}:${path}`]
-    const output = await this.exec(args)
+    const output = await this.exec(args, {encoding: 'base64'})
     return output.stdout.trim()
   }
 
@@ -376,10 +377,10 @@ export class GitCommandManager {
       ignoreReturnCode: opts.allowAllExitCodes ?? false,
       listeners: {
         stdout: (data: Buffer) => {
-          stdout.push(data.toString())
+          stdout.push(data.toString(opts.encoding ?? 'utf8'))
         },
         stderr: (data: Buffer) => {
-          stderr.push(data.toString())
+          stderr.push(data.toString(opts.encoding ?? 'utf8'))
         }
       }
     }
diff --git a/src/github-helper.ts b/src/github-helper.ts
index 0aeb4e9e..fb541b40 100644
--- a/src/github-helper.ts
+++ b/src/github-helper.ts
@@ -275,7 +275,7 @@ export class GitHubHelper {
                 const {data: blob} = await blobCreationLimit(() =>
                   this.octokit.rest.git.createBlob({
                     ...repository,
-                    content: git.showFileAtRef(commit.sha, path),
+                    content: await git.showFileAtRefBase64(commit.sha, path),
                     encoding: 'base64'
                   })
                 )
diff --git a/src/utils.ts b/src/utils.ts
index ced3cbdf..b501dd48 100644
--- a/src/utils.ts
+++ b/src/utils.ts
@@ -126,16 +126,6 @@ export function readFile(path: string): string {
   return fs.readFileSync(path, 'utf-8')
 }
 
-export function readFileBase64(pathParts: string[]): string {
-  const resolvedPath = path.resolve(...pathParts)
-  if (fs.lstatSync(resolvedPath).isSymbolicLink()) {
-    return fs
-      .readlinkSync(resolvedPath, {encoding: 'buffer'})
-      .toString('base64')
-  }
-  return fs.readFileSync(resolvedPath).toString('base64')
-}
-
 /* eslint-disable  @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any */
 function hasErrorCode(error: any): error is {code: string} {
   return typeof (error && error.code) === 'string'