Why do the sys.stdout.encoding differ when output is piped (in Python2.x)?

Question

When I run the same code with different piping, why output is different?

% python2.7  -c 'import sys; print sys.stdout.encoding'
UTF-8
% python2.7  -c 'import sys; print sys.stdout.encoding' | cat
None

Igor Chubin · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-26 09:29:05Z

7

Because when you use cat (or any pipe), you unbind the process from terminal. Python derives information about encoding from terminal settings.

You can force the encoding using enironment variable:

export PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8

answered Jul 26, 2012 at 9:29

Igor Chubin

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