TypeError: Frame 0 (u'Some exception handling minion...) does not support the buffer interface.

[ironman627]

Description of Issue

Issued a salt command (see below) and the master does not respond, event bus does not record the command event, and throws the TypeError from above.

Setup

/var/log/salt/master latest relevant entry:
###################################################
2020-11-04 23:28:22,388 [tornado.application:611 ][ERROR ][27706] Exception in callback None
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/tornado/ioloop.py", line 865, in start
handler_func(fd_obj, events)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/tornado/stack_context.py", line 274, in null_wrapper
return fn(*args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/eventloop/zmqstream.py", line 444, in _handle_events
self._handle_send()
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/eventloop/zmqstream.py", line 487, in _handle_send
status = self.socket.send_multipart(msg, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/sugar/socket.py", line 363, in send_multipart
i, rmsg,
TypeError: Frame 0 (u'Some exception handling minion...) does not support the buffer interface.
##########################################################################

Steps to Reproduce Issue

Issue the following command:
salt -G ‘os:Windows’ service.status W3SVC

Versions Report

(Provided by running salt --versions-report. Please also mention any differences in master/minion versions.)
################################################
[root@ip-172-31-22-154 salt]# salt --versions-report
Salt Version:
Salt: 2019.2.5

Dependency Versions:
cffi: 1.14.0
cherrypy: Not Installed
dateutil: Not Installed
docker-py: Not Installed
gitdb: 0.6.4
gitpython: 1.0.1
ioflo: Not Installed
Jinja2: 2.7.2
libgit2: Not Installed
libnacl: Not Installed
M2Crypto: Not Installed
Mako: Not Installed
msgpack-pure: Not Installed
msgpack-python: 0.5.6
mysql-python: Not Installed
pycparser: 2.14
pycrypto: 2.6.1
pycryptodome: Not Installed
pygit2: Not Installed
Python: 2.7.5 (default, Aug 7 2019, 00:51:29)
python-gnupg: Not Installed
PyYAML: 3.11
PyZMQ: 15.3.0
RAET: Not Installed
smmap: 0.9.0
timelib: Not Installed
Tornado: 4.2.1
ZMQ: 4.1.4

System Versions:
dist: centos 7.7.1908 Core
locale: UTF-8
machine: x86_64
release: 3.10.0-1062.12.1.el7.x86_64
system: Linux
version: CentOS Linux 7.7.1908 Core
#######################################

[ironman627]

Here is the salt-master's debug relating to the above command:
########################################
[DEBUG ] LazyLoaded localfs.init_kwargs
[WARNING ] /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/utils/data.py:688: UnicodeWarning: Unicode equal comparison failed to convert both arguments to Unicode - interpreting them as being unequal
if key == '*':

[DEBUG ] Attempting to match 'Windows’' in '‘os' using delimiter ':'
[DEBUG ] Attempting to match 'Windows’' in '‘os' using delimiter ':'
[DEBUG ] Attempting to match 'Windows’' in '‘os' using delimiter ':'
[DEBUG ] Attempting to match 'Windows’' in '‘os' using delimiter ':'
[DEBUG ] Attempting to match 'Windows’' in '‘os' using delimiter ':'
[ERROR ] Some exception handling a payload from minion
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/transport/zeromq.py", line 761, in handle_message
ret, req_opts = yield self.payload_handler(payload)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/tornado/gen.py", line 882, in run
value = future.result()
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/tornado/concurrent.py", line 214, in result
raise_exc_info(self._exc_info)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/tornado/gen.py", line 217, in wrapper
result = func(*args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/master.py", line 1065, in _handle_payload
'clear': self._handle_clear}key
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/master.py", line 1097, in _handle_clear
ret = method(load), {'fun': 'send_clear'}
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/salt/master.py", line 2171, in publish
'error': 'Master could not resolve minions for target {0}'.format(clear_load['tgt'])
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)
[ERROR ] Uncaught exception, closing connection.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/eventloop/zmqstream.py", line 444, in _handle_events
self._handle_send()
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/eventloop/zmqstream.py", line 487, in _handle_send
status = self.socket.send_multipart(msg, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/sugar/socket.py", line 363, in send_multipart
i, rmsg,
TypeError: Frame 0 (u'Some exception handling minion...) does not support the buffer interface.
[ERROR ] Exception in callback None
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/tornado/ioloop.py", line 865, in start
handler_func(fd_obj, events)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/tornado/stack_context.py", line 274, in null_wrapper
return fn(*args, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/eventloop/zmqstream.py", line 444, in _handle_events
self._handle_send()
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/eventloop/zmqstream.py", line 487, in _handle_send
status = self.socket.send_multipart(msg, **kwargs)
File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/sugar/socket.py", line 363, in send_multipart
i, rmsg,
TypeError: Frame 0 (u'Some exception handling minion...) does not support the buffer interface.
###############################################################

[ironman627]

If I execute the following: salt *win service.status W3SVC it works fine.
Possibly something to do with the targeting of the grains.

[cmcmarrow]

I ran this on master and got no return as well. The minion or master did not crash and I cant find a stack trace in the logs.

[thinkst-marco]

Super late to the party, but the issue is that command includes smart quotes:

salt -G [‘]os:Windows[’] service.status W3SVC
         ^------------^--- these characters

Their UTF-8 values are \xe2\x80\x98 and \xe2\x80\x99... which is why the Unicode error triggers. The error 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 0: ordinal not in range(128) indicates that position 0 in the targeting string is \xe2, which confirms the hypothesis.