Why LC_CTYPE needs to be set manually for Python in some cases

Question

I am trying to use Django's Admin documentation. I followed this tutorial and installed docutils. After installing I run Django development server through python manage.py runserver and get error unknown locale: UTF-8.

I solved issue as explained in this question:

export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

But my question is: What is origin of this problem? It seems docutils has some compatibility problem with Python or something else?

AFAIK it is a problem with your operating system (Ubuntu, OSX). — Mikko Ohtamaa, Jan 21 '14 at 07:36
Many python apps have the same problem. For example AWS CLI tool on OS X. This rules out docutils. — Sébastien Stormacq, Jan 24 '14 at 01:41
Another option is to prevent Terminal to set locale automatically. iTerm -> Prefs -> Profile -> Terminal OR Terminal -> Prefs -> Settings ->Advanced — Sébastien Stormacq, Jan 24 '14 at 02:08

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 24 '16 at 22:42

2

This is old issue, but still happening on OSX El Capitan. The origin of this problem is that Python assumes locale environment variable to be in format of language_region.encoding. This assumption is strict on Python's part as OSX defaults to UTF-8 when valid language and region pair is not available.

Lengthy discussion about this issue at bugs.python.org

answered Jul 24 '16 at 22:42

Atte Kotiranta

121
2

1

Same issue on OSX 10.14.2, fixed it by changing my primary language to `English (US)` instead of `English`. – EliadL Oct 10 '19 at 09:04

Why LC_CTYPE needs to be set manually for Python in some cases

1 Answers1

Linked