Environment Context #

• OS: Windows 10
• Python: 3.8.5
• Pyarmor: 6.4.2

Project Directory Structure #

│ .gitignore
│ main.py
│ README.md
│ requirements.txt
│
├───cogs
│   │ somefile.py
│   │ somefile.py
│   │ ... (10 total .py files)
│   │
│   └───__pycache__
│           pyc files
│
└───__pycache__
        main.cpython-38.pyc

The Problem #

I've already set VS Code's encoding to UTF-8 and added # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- at the top of every Python file. But when running the obfuscation command from the main.py directory:

pyarmor -d obfuscate --recursive main.py

I get this traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "c:\users\User\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\runpy.py", line 194, in _run_module_as_main
return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
File "c:\users\User\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\runpy.py", line 87, in run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File "C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python38-32\Scripts\pyarmor.exe_main.py", line 7, in
File "c:\users\User\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\site-packages\pyarmor\pyarmor.py", line 1447, in main_entry
main(sys.argv[1:])
File "c:\users\User\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\site-packages\pyarmor\pyarmor.py", line 1439, in main
args.func(args)
File "c:\users\User\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\site-packages\pyarmor\pyarmor.py", line 694, in _obfuscate
encrypt_script(prokey, a, b, wrap_mode=args.wrap_mode,
File "c:\users\User\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\site-packages\pyarmor\utils.py", line 933, in encrypt_script
f.write(''.join(lines))
File "c:\users\User\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\encodings\cp1252.py", line 19, in encode
return codecs.charmap_encode(input,self.errors,encoding_table)[0]
UnicodeEncodeError: 'charmap' codec can't encode characters in position 177-178: character maps to

I've tried the fixes in the Pyarmor docs, but the error persists.

Solution Options #

1. Force UTF-8 Encoding via Environment Variable #

Windows defaults to the cp1252 encoding for console operations, which conflicts with your UTF-8 files. Set the PYTHONIOENCODING variable before running Pyarmor to force Python to use UTF-8 for I/O:

For Command Prompt (CMD):

set PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8
pyarmor -d obfuscate --recursive main.py

For PowerShell:

$env:PYTHONIOENCODING = "utf-8"
pyarmor -d obfuscate --recursive main.py

This ensures Pyarmor uses UTF-8 when writing obfuscated files, avoiding the charmap encoding conflict.

2. Patch Pyarmor's utils.py File #

The error happens because Pyarmor opens output files without explicitly specifying UTF-8 encoding. You can modify the relevant code:

1. Navigate to c:\users\User\appdata\local\programs\python\python38-32\lib\site-packages\pyarmor\utils.py
2. Locate the encrypt_script function (near line 933 where the error occurs)
3. Find the file opening line (looks like with open(new_path, 'w') as f:)
4. Modify it to explicitly use UTF-8:

   with open(new_path, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
   

5. Save the file and re-run your Pyarmor command.

Note: This patch will be overwritten if you update Pyarmor, so it's a temporary fix until you can upgrade.

3. Upgrade Pyarmor to a Newer Version #

Your Pyarmor version (6.4.2) is outdated. Later versions likely include fixes for Windows encoding issues. Upgrade to the latest compatible version for Python 3.8:

pip install --upgrade pyarmor

After upgrading, re-run your obfuscation command—this might resolve the problem entirely without extra tweaks.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Buster