Error in manage.py runserver with Django on windows 8.1

Question

I couldn't find this exitcode anywhere but hopefully one of you could help me or let me know if this is a bug in python/Django.

Anyway, first here's the stacktrace:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Sitezooi\SiteTest\manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init_
_.py", line 385, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init_
_.py", line 377, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py
", line 288, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **options.__dict__)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\base.py
", line 338, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\command
s\runserver.py", line 83, in handle
    self.run(*args, **options)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\command
s\runserver.py", line 92, in run
    autoreload.main(self.inner_run, args, options)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", l
ine 322, in main
    reloader(wrapped_main_func, args, kwargs)
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", l
ine 293, in python_reloader
    exit_code = restart_with_reloader()
  File "C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py", l
ine 279, in restart_with_reloader
    exit_code = os.spawnve(os.P_WAIT, sys.executable, args, new_environ)
UnicodeEncodeError: 'mbcs' codec can't encode characters in position 0--1: inval
id character

Ignore the weird filepath please, I even just tried putting it on C:\ directly.

There's another maybe similar Stackoverflow Question here: UnicodeEncodeError when using the compile function but it's not like the filepath I use uses any non-English characters. I tried a couple solutions there but they didn't work.

Running python 3.4.1, tested in 2.7.x before, didn't work either. Runs fine on linux(Ubuntu).

There's nothing special in the django project since it's just the empty startproject project.

explore the local variables by modifying `C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py` to have `import pdb; pdb.set_trace()` right before line 293. Then print out the variables and inspect what is going on. — Ross Rogers, Sep 07 '14 at 21:25
After using the debugger for the first time it seems the at some point it got to going through my Enviroment Variables and basically got 1 String of all of them and... tries to decode it? I'm not good enough in programming to do this yet, I'll just boot into linux to do python I guess. — Blanen, Sep 07 '14 at 23:33
Using a debugger and stepping through your code will give you a lot of insight into how the machine is processing your instructions. Go up and down the stack with `up` and `down`. See how you got there. Look at the variables. Set a break point at an earlier point and then step through the code with `s`, `n`, and `finish`. — Ross Rogers, Sep 08 '14 at 04:51
@RossRogers A lot have changed since 2014, where should I put that pdb tracer now? do we have a relative location reference? — Sajuuk, Aug 20 '17 at 12:44
Using PDB is a general technique for any python program. If you're running django in debug mode and you have a stack trace, then modify one of the files that it specifies and insert the breakpoint there. You might want to put it right before the exception is thrown and then you can explore the entire stack leading up to the failure. — Ross Rogers, Aug 20 '17 at 20:09

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 22 '14 at 20:43

I was having the same issue, and I found the solution. From what I searched it also happens with Windows 7 & 8.

If you want to know with more detail how I solved it check the ticket I filed in Django's forums: Error in manage.py runserver on Windows (7 / 8 / 8.1).

Now to solve the error open this file C:\Program Files\Python\lib\site-packages\django\utils\autoreload.py (I'm using your code as reference) and add this line of code just before your error (line 279):

new_environ['PATH'] = os.path.abspath(new_environ['PATH'].replace('\u202a', ''))

Your function now should look like this:

def restart_with_reloader():
    while True:
        args = [sys.executable] + ['-W%s' % o for o in sys.warnoptions] + sys.argv
        if sys.platform == "win32":
            args = ['"%s"' % arg for arg in args]
        new_environ = os.environ.copy()
        new_environ["RUN_MAIN"] = 'true'
        new_environ['PATH'] = os.path.abspath(new_environ['PATH'].replace('\u202a', ''))
        exit_code = os.spawnve(os.P_WAIT, sys.executable, args, new_environ)
        if exit_code != 3:
            return exit_code

Now try using again manage.py runserver. I hope this solves your problem and don't feel you're alone.

It doesn't have to be slash, but any other weird character. Look thru your path and try to find anything unusual (I had "C:\xampp\tomcat◰", notice the weird square at the end) — MartinM, Jun 30 '15 at 12:00

Janusz Skonieczny · Answer 2 · 2016-12-01T20:39:45.780

In my case it had nothing to do with PATH, there seem to be CHROME_RESTART environment setting with some non-english characters. Poping it from new_environ did the trick:

def restart_with_reloader():
    while True:
        args = [sys.executable] + ['-W%s' % o for o in sys.warnoptions] + sys.argv
        if sys.platform == "win32":
            args = ['"%s"' % arg for arg in args]
        new_environ = os.environ.copy()
        new_environ["RUN_MAIN"] = 'true'

        # This will prevent UnicodeEncodeError
        new_environ.pop("CHROME_RESTART", None)

        exit_code = os.spawnve(os.P_WAIT, sys.executable, args, new_environ)
        if exit_code != 3:
            return exit_code

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 10 '14 at 05:51

2

I tried this

new_environ['PATH'] = os.path.abspath(new_environ['PATH'].replace('\u202a', ''))

but it did not work.

And my solution is

new_environ['PATH'] = os.path.abspath(new_environ['PATH'].encode('ascii', 'replace'))

Hope it will help you!

edited Dec 10 '14 at 05:51

Himanshu

4,327
16
31
39

answered Dec 10 '14 at 05:16

David

21
1

Greenev · Answer 4 · 2017-01-27T15:51:45.177

1

UnicodeEncodeError: 'mbcs' codec can't encode characters in position 0--1:invalid character

I had the same problem on windows 7 with

$ python manage.py runserver

Just in case if someone has cyrillic computer name like I had, it's exactly the thing causing your encoding problem. So the solution is to rename your computer using latin alphabet symbols only.

edited Jan 27 '17 at 15:51

answered Jan 27 '17 at 15:36

Greenev

871
6
23

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 12 '17 at 23:16

I had the same problem.
The reason was non latin characters in an environment variables entry.
In my case it was cyrilic name of some folder, while my windows was originally english version.
So it had a conflict. After removing it - everything worked ok.

Error in manage.py runserver with Django on windows 8.1

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