Encoding issue when running python script from crontab

Question

I am migrating my python scripts from one server to a new docker container. But I am facing a strange issue with encoding, I tried several solutions without success.

If I run the script directly from the terminal (manually) it is executed with success. But if I run through crontab I get the following error:

UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character

I created a small script just to check the encoding:

import sys
print sys.stdout.encoding

If I run manually I get the following response:

UTF-8

Then, I added this script in cron and directed the output to a file:

 * * * * *   /tmp/p.py > /tmp/p.log

It saved a empty p.log... So I think that python is not getting the encode from the crontab.

I saw a several suggestions to add in crontab the encoding variables before call the command, but it not worked for me. for exemple:

* * * * *  PYTHONIOENCODING=UTF-8 /tmp/p.py > /tmp/p.log

or

* * * * *  LANG=UTF-8 /tmp/p.py > /tmp/p.log

Also, I tried to added this variables in the head of my crontab file. No success at all.

I am using Ubuntu with few locales installed:

    locale -a 
    C 
    C.UTF-8 
    en_US.utf8 
    POSIX

And here is my locale (outside cron):

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

I have several python scripts running, so it's not a good idea to edit them (also, as I said its running perfectly when called outside cron).

Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-22 10:09:10Z

7

Actually it was some problem with crontab, it wasn't reload automatically when the file was edited.

To force the reload I did:

crontab /etc/crontab

and

service cron restart

Now the crontab is loading correctly the environment variables. In the header of crontab file have the following variables:

SHELL=/bin/bash

TERM=xterm
PYTHONIOENCODING=UTF-8
LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

answered Nov 22, 2016 at 10:09

Thomas

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1 Comment

ClementNerma Over a year ago

Lifesaver, I've been blocked on this for hours! Thanks a lot for your answer!

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