diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 10670ce..69f4f81 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ check_pacman_dir <- function() {
     }
   }
   if (file.exists(".gitignore")) {
-    if (length(grep(".pacman/", ".gitignore")) == 0) {
+    if (length(grep(".pacman/", readLines(".gitignore"))) == 0) {
       con <- file(".gitignore", "a")
       writeLines("\n# pacman - package management folder\n.pacman/", con)
       close(con)