diff --git a/acceptance_tests/empty.sh b/acceptance_tests/empty.sh
index a0ec742f..7ffb813f 100755
--- a/acceptance_tests/empty.sh
+++ b/acceptance_tests/empty.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-set -eo pipefail
-
 setUp() {
   rm test*.yml || true
   cat >test.yml <<EOL
diff --git a/cmd/evaluate_all_command.go b/cmd/evaluate_all_command.go
index 88570907..549f1f74 100644
--- a/cmd/evaluate_all_command.go
+++ b/cmd/evaluate_all_command.go
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ func evaluateAll(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) (cmdError error) {
 	case 1:
 		if nullInput {
 			err = yqlib.NewStreamEvaluator().EvaluateNew(processExpression(args[0]), printer, "")
-		} else if pipingStdIn && args[0] != "-" {
+		} else if pipingStdIn && args[0] != "-" && !maybeFile(args[0]) {
 			// must have given a single expression and piping input from stdin
 			err = allAtOnceEvaluator.EvaluateFiles(processExpression(args[0]), []string{"-"}, printer, leadingContentPreProcessing, decoder)
 
diff --git a/cmd/evalute_sequence_command.go b/cmd/evalute_sequence_command.go
index 3b5f263a..bfa7a7c7 100644
--- a/cmd/evalute_sequence_command.go
+++ b/cmd/evalute_sequence_command.go
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ func evaluateSequence(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) (cmdError error) {
 	case 1:
 		if nullInput {
 			err = streamEvaluator.EvaluateNew(processExpression(args[0]), printer, "")
-		} else if pipingStdIn && args[0] != "-" {
+		} else if pipingStdIn && args[0] != "-" && !maybeFile(args[0]) {
 			// must have given a single expression and piping input from stdin
 			err = streamEvaluator.EvaluateFiles(processExpression(args[0]), []string{"-"}, printer, leadingContentPreProcessing, decoder)
 		} else {
diff --git a/cmd/utils.go b/cmd/utils.go
index 1c19f43f..7a757ac9 100644
--- a/cmd/utils.go
+++ b/cmd/utils.go
@@ -91,3 +91,13 @@ func configureEncoder(format yqlib.PrinterOutputFormat) yqlib.Encoder {
 	}
 	panic("invalid encoder")
 }
+
+// this is a hack to enable backwards compatibility with githubactions (which pipe /dev/null into everything)
+// and being able to call yq with the filename as a single parameter
+//
+// without this - yq detects there is stdin (thanks githubactions),
+// then tries to parse the filename as an expression
+func maybeFile(str string) bool {
+	_, err := os.Stat(str) // #nosec
+	return err == nil
+}