how to fix UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte on windows

Question

i'm using python 2.7 on a windows 10. iv'e tried to install openpyxl using "pip install openpyxl" and iv'e got an trace of errors, ending in "UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte". I searched this site for solutions, and i tried to upgrade pip, as suggested in one of them. When i typed "pip install --upgrade pip" i got the same error (i pasted the error trace below).

C:\Users\Gal>pip install --upgrade pip
Exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\basecommand.py", line 215, in main
    status = self.run(options, args)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\commands\install.py", line 299, in     
run
    requirement_set.prepare_files(finder)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\req\req_set.py", line 370, in   
prepare_files
    ignore_dependencies=self.ignore_dependencies))
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\req\req_set.py", line 458, in     
_prepare_file
    req_to_install, finder)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\req\req_set.py", line 407, in     
_check_skip_installed
    finder.find_requirement(req_to_install, self.upgrade)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\index.py", line 442, in     
find_requirement
    all_candidates = self.find_all_candidates(req.name)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\index.py", line 400, in    
find_all_candidates
    for page in self._get_pages(url_locations, project_name):
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\index.py", line 545, in _get_pages
    page = self._get_page(location)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\index.py", line 648, in _get_page
    return HTMLPage.get_page(link, session=self.session)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\index.py", line 757, in get_page
    "Cache-Control": "max-age=600",
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\sessions.py",     
line 487, in get
    return self.request('GET', url, **kwargs)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\download.py", line 378, in request
    return super(PipSession, self).request(method, url, *args, **kwargs)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\sessions.py",     
line 475, in request
    resp = self.send(prep, **send_kwargs)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\sessions.py",    
line 617, in send
    r.content
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\models.py", line  
741, in content
    self._content = bytes().join(self.iter_content(CONTENT_CHUNK_SIZE)) or   
bytes()
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\requests\models.py", line   
664, in generate
    for chunk in self.raw.stream(chunk_size, decode_content=True):
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-  
packages\pip\_vendor\requests\packages\urllib3\response.py", line 353, in   
stream
    data = self.read(amt=amt, decode_content=decode_content)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-  
packages\pip\_vendor\requests\packages\urllib3\response.py", line 310, in     
read
    data = self._fp.read(amt)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-    
packages\pip\_vendor\cachecontrol\filewrapper.py", line 54, in read
    self.__callback(self.__buf.getvalue())
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-  
packages\pip\_vendor\cachecontrol\controller.py", line 297, in   
cache_response
    self.serializer.dumps(request, response, body=body),
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\download.py", line 281, in set
    return super(SafeFileCache, self).set(*args, **kwargs)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site- 
packages\pip\_vendor\cachecontrol\caches\file_cache.py", line 99, in set
    with self.lock_class(name) as lock:
  File "c:\python27\lib\site- 
packages\pip\_vendor\lockfile\mkdirlockfile.py", line 19, in __init__
    LockBase.__init__(self, path, threaded, timeout)
  File "c:\python27\lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\lockfile\__init__.py",  
line 242, in __init__
    hash(self.path)))
  File "c:\python27\lib\ntpath.py", line 85, in join
    result_path = result_path + p_path
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xee in position 0:   
ordinal not in range(128)

How can i solve this problem?

Answer 1

The answer above mine (the answer of Gal Avineri) was almost correct. You should go to the ntpath file and change the line.

result_path = result_path + p_path

to the line,

result_path = result_path + p_path.decode('latin1')

Answer 2

I found the problem.

I saw that the last error came from ntpath, trying to decode a byte using ascii. That meant that either result_path or p_path were string that were'nt encoded in ascii.

when i printed their types, it showed that result_path was unicode and p_path was a string. when i printed p_path, i recognized it was encoded in latin1.

So i replaced the line:

result_path = result_path + p_path

to the line:

result_path = result_path + decode(p_path,'latin1')

and that solved it :D

Answer 3

Above answers gave me the right clue but neither solution worked for me. Turns out I had the issue due to an 'å' in my username in windows.

I solved it by changing the line to:

result_path = result_path + p_path.encode('utf-8')