How to fix Python encoding in terminal

Question

How do you set the default encoding Python uses with sys.stdout when run from a terminal program like Gnome-Terminal?

If I execute a Python script inside Gnome-Terminal, I get the notorious "UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character" error if the script tries to print unicode characters. However, even though Gnome-Terminal's encoding is set to "UTF-8", if I print sys.stdout.encoding it shows "ANSI_X3.4-1968".

Minimal code to reproduce the error is:

python -c 'import sys; print sys.stdout.encoding; print u"\u0411\n"'

Why isn't Python using the terminal's encoding of utf-8?

Note, I'm not asking how to convert my string to ASCII.

Tried # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- at the top of your script file ? — Szabolcs
– Szabolcs, Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 18:43
@Szabolcs There's no script, as far as I understood -- just one command. — avysk
– avysk, Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 18:48
Can you show output of locale command in your terminal, please? — avysk
– avysk, Commented Feb 28, 2017 at 18:48
@Szabolcs and the upvoters. # coding: utf8 declares the encoding of the source file and nothing else. — Mark Tolonen
– Mark Tolonen, Commented Mar 1, 2017 at 5:03

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:00:14Z

4

Try setting the PYTHONIOENCODING variable, or using the solutions in this question.

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:00

CommunityBot

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answered Feb 28, 2017 at 18:44

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