Pip creates scripts for PyInstaller with no encoding specified

[me21]

First of all, I've already opened an issue in PyInstaller repo, but I was told this is not their issue but yours (or setuptools's).

Environment

• pip version: 10.0.1
• Python version: 3.6.5
• OS: Windows 10 LTSB 2016 Russian

Description
I install PyInstaller with pip install pyinstaller. It installs, but doesn't work: pyinstaller myscript.py fails due to pyinstaller-script.py in the Scripts subfolder contains non-UTF-8 codes. In fact, its encoding is CP1251 on my machine but no encoding is specified inside the file.
The offending line contains the path to the Python interpreter executable. This is because I run all commands in the virtual environment located in path with non-latin characters. If I run commands in virtual environment placed in latin-only path, no errors are thrown.

Expected behavior

PyInstaller should work and create an executable file from my Python script.

How to Reproduce

1. Create a virtual environment in the path which contains non-latin characters. And activate it.
2. Run pip install pyinstaller.
3. Create arbitrary Python script (we will try to create an executable from it).
4. Run pyinstaller <script name>.py.
5. An error occurs.

Output

File "C:\Users\Зарубкин\Documents\Python Projects\uno-db\venv\Scripts\pyinstaller-script.py", line 1
SyntaxError: Non-UTF-8 code starting with '\xc7' in file C:\Users\Зарубкин\Documents\Python Projects\uno-db\venv\Scripts\pyinstaller-script.py on line 1, but no encoding declared; see http://python.org/dev/peps/pep-0263/ for details

[pfmoore]

If there's a pyinstaller-script.py file in the Scripts folder, then it's not pip creating the wrappers. Pip creates command line wrappers from the entry point metadata in the package, but it creates single file exe wrappers which don't use a -script.py support file.

If you're getting the -script.py file, the wrapper is probably being generated by setuptools, likely because pyinstaller doesn't provide a wheel, and pip is falling back to running setup.py install using setuptools. In that case, the problem lies with setuptools.

Sorry to keep passing you on to different projects, but the infrastructure is a complex mix and it's often difficult to pinpoint which part is causing an issue at first...

[pfmoore]

As a workaround, you can build a wheel using pip wheel pyinstaller and then install that wheel using pip install path-to-the-file.whl. That should use pip's wrappers, which I believe are able to handle Unicode paths for Python.

[me21]

Yup, that works fine. Thanks!

[kubrickfr]

Hello, yes there is a workaround but the issue is still not fixed. Can this issue be re-opened please?

[me21]

@kubrickfr as @pfmoore said, an issue should be opened against setuptools. This is not pip issue in the end.

[kubrickfr]

Adding link for reference:
pypa/setuptools#1400

[lock]

This thread has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity after it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs.