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{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"import error when non-ascii characters are present in cwd or user name (windows)","articleBody":"Ahoy!\nI have recently updated matplotlib through conda to version `14.0` (`np19py27_0`).\nI am using windows 8, python 2.7.7 (Anaconda distribution 2.0.2 32-bit)\nUnfortunatelly my windows user name contains non-ascii caracter (`ś`) and importing matplotlib gives errors. :cry: (previous matplotlib versions I used did not have any problem with this)\n\nThe error comes in two flavors:\n:black_circle: If my current working directory contains non-ascii character then:\n\n``` python\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------\nUnicodeDecodeError                        Traceback (most recent call last)\n\u003cipython-input-1-82be63b7783c\u003e in \u003cmodule\u003e()\n----\u003e 1 import matplotlib\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in \u003cmodule\u003e()\n   1046 \n   1047 # this is the instance used by the matplotlib classes\n-\u003e 1048 rcParams = rc_params()\n   1049 \n   1050 if rcParams['examples.directory']:\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in rc_params(fail_on_error)\n    895     default matplotlib rc file.\n    896     \"\"\"\n--\u003e 897     fname = matplotlib_fname()\n    898     if not os.path.exists(fname):\n    899         # this should never happen, default in mpl-data should always be found\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in matplotlib_fname()\n    746       system-defined copy.\n    747     \"\"\"\n--\u003e 748     fname = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), 'matplotlibrc')\n    749     if os.path.exists(fname):\n    750         return fname\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\ntpath.pyc in join(path, *paths)\n     82         if result_path and result_path[-1] not in '\\\\/':\n     83             result_path = result_path + '\\\\'\n---\u003e 84         result_path = result_path + p_path\n     85     return result_drive + result_path\n     86 \n\nUnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0x9c in position 11: ordinal not in range(128)\n```\n\n:black_circle: If I change my current directory so that it does not contain any ascii characters the error transforms itself a little:\n\n``` python\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------\nUnicodeDecodeError                        Traceback (most recent call last)\n\u003cipython-input-6-1d1446f6fa64\u003e in \u003cmodule\u003e()\n----\u003e 1 from matplotlib import pyplot as plt\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in \u003cmodule\u003e()\n   1046 \n   1047 # this is the instance used by the matplotlib classes\n-\u003e 1048 rcParams = rc_params()\n   1049 \n   1050 if rcParams['examples.directory']:\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in rc_params(fail_on_error)\n    895     default matplotlib rc file.\n    896     \"\"\"\n--\u003e 897     fname = matplotlib_fname()\n    898     if not os.path.exists(fname):\n    899         # this should never happen, default in mpl-data should always be found\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in matplotlib_fname()\n    757                 return fname\n    758 \n--\u003e 759     configdir = _get_configdir()\n    760     if configdir is not None:\n    761         fname = os.path.join(configdir, 'matplotlibrc')\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in _get_configdir()\n    628     5. A writable directory could not be found or created; return None.\n    629     \"\"\"\n--\u003e 630     return _get_config_or_cache_dir(_get_xdg_config_dir())\n    631 \n    632 get_configdir = verbose.wrap('CONFIGDIR=%s', _get_configdir, always=False)\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in _get_xdg_config_dir()\n    553     path = os.environ.get('XDG_CONFIG_HOME')\n    554     if path is None:\n--\u003e 555         path = get_home()\n    556         if path is not None:\n    557             path = os.path.join(path, '.config')\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in wrapper(*args, **kwargs)\n    321         assert six.callable(func)\n    322         def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):\n--\u003e 323             ret = func(*args, **kwargs)\n    324 \n    325             if (always or not wrapper._spoke):\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\site-packages\\matplotlib\\__init__.py in _get_home()\n    507     \"\"\"\n    508     try:\n--\u003e 509         path = os.path.expanduser(\"~\")\n    510     except ImportError:\n    511         # This happens on Google App Engine (pwd module is not present).\n\nD:\\Python\\Anaconda\\lib\\ntpath.pyc in expanduser(path)\n    271         userhome = join(dirname(userhome), path[1:i])\n    272 \n--\u003e 273     return userhome + path[i:]\n    274 \n    275 \n\nUnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0x9c in position 13: ordinal not in range(128)\n```\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/mmagnuski","@type":"Person","name":"mmagnuski"},"datePublished":"2014-09-14T19:02:26.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":17},"url":"https://github.com/3516/matplotlib/issues/3516"}