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Problem

How can I make git log command output properly displayed in the Windows CLI terminal?

Example

Git commands sequence leading to the problem

As you can see, I can type diacritical characters properly, but on git log, the output is somehow escaped. According to the UTF-8 encoding table, the codes between angle brackets (< and >) from the output correspond to the previously typed git config parameters.

I have tried to set LESSCHARSET environment variable to utf-8 as suggested in one of the answers for similar issue, but then the output is garbled:

'git log' output after setting LESSCHARSET=utf8

I know .git/config is encoded properly with UTF-8 as it's handled by gitk as expected.

Proper gitk output

Here is the locale command output if necessary:

LANG= LC_CTYPE="C.UTF-8" LC_NUMERIC="C.UTF-8" LC_TIME="C.UTF-8" LC_COLLATE="C.UTF-8" LC_MONETARY="C.UTF-8" LC_MESSAGES="C.UTF-8" LC_ALL=

The output is the same also in pure Git Bash:

Enter image description here

so I believe the problem is shell-independent and relates to Git or its configuration itself.

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5
  • 2
    Have you tried the solution in "Unicode characters in Windows command line - how?"? Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 0:01
  • Yes, I tried several code pages including 65001 (UTF-8) without any result. It seems chcp command has no influence on how git log output is displayed. It's always displayed in the same way. Commented Dec 31, 2016 at 13:54
  • 1
    Sorry if the question sounds stupid, but why do you use the Windows command prompt at all instead of Git Bash? It is better suited to using Git, the window is resizeable up to full screen, the prompt automatically shows you which branch you are on etc. Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 14:09
  • 1
    It's not stupid @kriegaex, it's good actually. I'm using git-bash wrapped into ConEmu for everyday use. The result is the same i.imgur.com/hMKz9D3r.png. I've described my problem giving examples with cmd.exe to not confuse people with other dependent tools am using as I believe the problem is shell independent and relates to Git or its configuration itself. Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 14:24
  • @jthill thanks, this answer seems to do it, stackoverflow.com/a/55674760/4592648 Commented Jan 5, 2022 at 10:48

8 Answers 8

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+50

Okay, I experimented a bit and found out that Windows Git commands actually need UNIX variables like LC_ALL in order to display Polish (or other UTF-8 characters) correctly. Just try this command:

set LC_ALL=C.UTF-8

Then enjoy the result. Here is what happened on my console (font "Consolas", no chcp necessary):

Windows console CMD

Update:

  • Well, in order for Windows commands like type (display file on console) to work correctly, you do need chcp 65001.
  • And if you prefer commands from Git Bash like cat you profit from the aforementioned set LC_ALL=C.UTF-8.

Windows console CMD, part 2

Update 2: How to make the changes permanent

As user mono blaine said, create an environment variable LC_ALL and assign it the value C.UTF-8, either globally or for your own user profile only (sorry for the German screenshot):

Create environment variable

Next time you open a command processor console (cmd.exe) you should see the variable value when issuing the command echo %LC_ALL%. In PowerShell you should see it when issuing $env:LC_ALL.

The simplest way to make the UTF-8 code page permanent ist to open regeedit and add a new value named Autorun of type string to section HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor and assign it the value chcp 65001.

Registration editor

Henceforth, this command will be executed each time you open a new cmd.exe console. You even see its output in the new window: "Aktive Codepage: 65001." (or similar in your respective language).

Oh, by the way: In order to display a UTF-8 encoded file correctly in PowerShell you can use Get-Content -encoding UTF8 file.txt or cat -encoding UTF8 file.txt (cat being an alias for Get-Content in PowerShell).

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4 Comments

Set LC_ALL is not needed by git itself. Other tools -- shiped with the git installaion -- like less, which is the default pager / see core.pager are using the LC_ALL value. Other valid values are the localized lang e.g.: LC_ALL=de_DE.UTF-8 for the germans.
you can set the environment-variable from commandline using setx LC_ALL C.UTF-8
Powershell 6 in ConEmu, it was enough to add $env.LC_ALL='ClUTF-8' to $Profile
Had encoding issue with rscript utility (command line tool for running r code), this advice helped to fix it also. Thanks!
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If anyone is interested in the PowerShell equivalent of set LC_ALL=C.UTF-8, that is:

$env:LC_ALL='C.UTF-8'

However this works only for the current session. To make it permanent, two possibilities:

  • create an environment variable named LC_ALL with the value C.UTF-8
  • or put $env:LC_ALL='C.UTF-8' in your $Profile file
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3 Comments

Or add it to your PowerShell profile (I prefer this to the global setting because I use the same profile – via git – on multiple machines).
The profile file can be edited by for example running: notepad $profile Then add a line somewhere as mono blaine suggested, $env:LC_ALL='C.UTF-8'
With PowerShell 6 + ConEmu on Windows 10: this works, nothing else was needed
11

I am using Git via PowerShell Core v7.0.3 inside Windows Terminal on Windows 10.

I have been browsing through answers and tried many of them. The solutions that worked for me were:

These solutions both work separately. I chose to use the Git command as the problem seems to be related to Git, and PowerShell profile stays cleaner.

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1 Comment

Thanks for the Git setting. The Git settings works for me, but also found that setting $env:LESSCHARSET='utf-8' works fine as well for the PowerShell 5 in the Windows Terminal.
7

I use Git Bash on Windows 10. As for me, four settings make the appearance as my expectation.

  • env setting. Add LC_ALL=C.UTF-8,LESSCHARSET=UTF-8 to PATH globally.

  • git config. git config --global i18n.logOutputEncoding utf-8.

  • Git Bash setting. Set Options → Text → Character set to utf-8. Or set locale and Character set both to default. It is smart enough to choose the correct encoding.

Done.

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2 Comments

I use git on Windows command prompt, and the first two steps solved the issue for my case.
first two steps helps to solve vs-code timeline encoding as well
7

My solution (git log called from PowerShell 7.3.6 on Win 10)

[console]::OutputEncoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8
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1 Comment

Same for me. Confusingly, you can also write this as [Console]::OutputEncoding = $OutputEncoding on sufficiently new versions of PowerShell. The variable $OutputEncoding seems to cover how output from PowerShell to native commands such as git.exe is encoded. But in the opposite direction, it is the static property [Console]::OutputEncoding you must use. You wonder if [Console]::InputEncoding also exists? It does.
1

I had to use the Windows PowerShell command prompt instead of the default one (Windows key + X).

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1 Comment

It works like a charm for Korean.
1

I had such problem on Linux. And the problem was that I did not generate locales. So my output of locale was containing all "C" letters, without UTF-8.

To solve this, I uncommented en_US.UTF-8 and ru_RU.UTF-8 in /etc/locale.gen. Then I run localectl set-locale LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8 and rebooted. And relogined to the system. After that Cyrillic was displayed normally.

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0 
git config --global core.pager 'less --raw-control-chars' #Or git config --global core.pager 'more'
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