diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ad09205..1dcb43a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 /templatefile
+.idea
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 751b682..259d45a 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -32,8 +32,14 @@ func main() {
 		argv[1] = os.Stdin.Name()
 	}
 
-	vars, err := ioutil.ReadFile(argv[1])
-	pp(err)
+	var vars []byte
+	if _, err := os.Stat(argv[1]); err == nil {
+		out, err := ioutil.ReadFile(argv[1])
+		pp(err)
+		vars = out
+	} else {
+		vars = []byte(argv[1])
+	}
 
 	out, err := templatefile(".", argv[0], string(vars))
 	pp(err)