UnicodeError under Windows if project has Unicode chars in path name #989
Description
When using the Python view on the sidebar, going to "PYTHON PROJECTS", one can expand the view to see packages installed on the current virtual environment:
In my case, there are a LOT of missing packages, and the reason is this: the path name of the workspace (the Python project) has an Unicode char which can't be mapped and causes an UnicodeError, so the package does not get listed.
The problem does not happen if setting PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 before launching VSCode, but I don't know why it does not happen for the first packages (astroid, colorama, isort, etc.). In fact I was not expecting this to happen at all, needing the PYTHONIOENCODING trick.
I've included the partial output, with a test workspace with an Unicode diamond for testing purposes, but happens with other Unicode characters.
2025-11-14 21:39:15.933 [info] Running: C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\◆\legion\.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip list
2025-11-14 21:39:17.003 [info] python: Package Version Editable project location
2025-11-14 21:39:17.004 [info] python: ------------ ------- -------------------------------
2025-11-14 21:39:17.005 [info] python: astroid 4.0.1
2025-11-14 21:39:17.006 [info] python: colorama 0.4.6
dill 0.4.0
2025-11-14 21:39:17.007 [info] python: isort 7.0.0
2025-11-14 21:39:17.007 [info] python: --- Logging error ---
2025-11-14 21:39:17.014 [info] python: Traceback (most recent call last):
2025-11-14 21:39:17.019 [info] python: File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\utils\logging.py", line 198, in emit
self.console.print(renderable, overflow="ignore", crop=False, style=style)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\rich\console.py", line 1697, in print
with self:
^^^^
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\rich\console.py", line 870, in __exit__
self._exit_buffer()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\rich\console.py", line 826, in _exit_buffer
self._check_buffer()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\rich\console.py", line 2038, in _check_buffer
self._write_buffer()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\rich\console.py", line 2074, in _write_buffer
legacy_windows_render(buffer, LegacyWindowsTerm(self.file))
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\rich\_windows_renderer.py", line 19, in legacy_windows_render
term.write_text(text)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\rich\_win32_console.py", line 402, in write_text
self.write(text)
~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
File "C:\Users\rauln\AppData\Local\Python\pythoncore-3.14-64\Lib\encodings\cp1252.py", line 19, in encode
return codecs.charmap_encode(input,self.errors,encoding_table)[0]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
UnicodeEncodeError: 'charmap' codec can't encode character '\u25c6' in position 44: character maps to <undefined>
Call stack:
2025-11-14 21:39:17.024 [info] python: File "<frozen runpy>", line 198, in _run_module_as_main
File "<frozen runpy>", line 88, in _run_code
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\__main__.py", line 24, in <module>
sys.exit(_main())
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\main.py", line 80, in main
return command.main(cmd_args)
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\base_command.py", line 159, in main
return self._main(args)
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\base_command.py", line 238, in _main
return self._run_wrapper(level_number, options, args)
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\base_command.py", line 107, in _run_wrapper
status = _inner_run()
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\cli\base_command.py", line 98, in _inner_run
return self.run(options, args)
File "C:\Users\rauln\Desktop\\u25c6\legion\.venv\Lib\site-packages\pip\_internal\commands\list.py", line 206, in run
self.output_package_listing(packages, options)