Default file encoding for daemon should be UTF-8

[lptr]

Currently we don't set the file.encoding property when starting daemons. Most systems default to UTF-8, but Windows typically uses CP-1252. The difference in default encoding can produce incorrect results by reusing cached task outputs from a shared cache when used by different OSs.

The real solution is for tasks to always declare all their inputs, even the default file encoding if they rely on it. However, this is easy to forget, as even some built-in tasks in Gradle don't do this (these should be fixed as a separate issue). By defaulting to UTF-8 we are making this discrepancy go away.

Users who need to set a different default encoding can make it explicit via org.gradle.jvmargs=-Dfile.encoding=....

Expected Behavior

Daemon is started with utf-8 as the default encoding.

Current Behavior

Daemon is started with the system default encoding. Changing the system default encoding does not change the default encoding for an already running daemon.

Context

Tasks that rely on file.encoding but don't declare it as an input can reuse cached results produced with a default encoding.

[comdiv]

Cannot set UTF-8 properties in gradle.properties if Windows is used for compilation - it read them as CP-1251 (in my case)

[irgaly]

Any roadmap for this?
I'll feel happy if we don't have to write org.gradle.jvmargs=-Dfile.encoding=... in gradle.properties any more.

[ljacomet]

Related issue: #19952

[ov7a]

Related issues:

• Communication between client and daemon is broken due to file encoding issues on s390x #24498
• Enable UTF-8 by default #16763