git log output encoding issues on Windows 10 command prompt
Okay, I experimented a bit and found out that Windows Git commands actually need UNIX variables like LC_ALL
in order to display Polish (or other UTF-8 characters) correctly. Just try this command:
set LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
Then enjoy the result. Here is what happened on my console (font "Consolas", no chcp
necessary):
Update:
- Well, in order for Windows commands like
type
(display file on console) to work correctly, you do needchcp 65001
. - And if you prefer commands from Git Bash like
cat
you profit from the aforementionedset LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
.
Update 2: How to make the changes permanent
As user mono blaine said, create an environment variable LC_ALL
and assign it the value C.UTF-8
, either globally or for your own user profile only (sorry for the German screenshot):
Next time you open a command processor console (cmd.exe) you should see the variable value when issuing the command echo %LC_ALL%
. In PowerShell you should see it when issuing $env:LC_ALL
.
The simplest way to make the UTF-8 code page permanent ist to open regeedit
and add a new value named Autorun
of type string to section
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Command Processor
and assign it the value chcp 65001
.
Henceforth, this command will be executed each time you open a new cmd.exe console. You even see its output in the new window: "Aktive Codepage: 65001." (or similar in your respective language).
Oh, by the way: In order to display a UTF-8 encoded file correctly in PowerShell you can use Get-Content -encoding UTF8 file.txt
or cat -encoding UTF8 file.txt
(cat
being an alias for Get-Content
in PowerShell).
If anyone is interested in the PowerShell equivalent of set LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
, that is:
$env:LC_ALL='C.UTF-8'
However this works only for the current session. To make it permanent, two possibilities:
- create an environment variable named
LC_ALL
with the valueC.UTF-8
- or put
$env:LC_ALL='C.UTF-8'
in your$Profile
file
I am using Git via Powershell Core v7.0.3 with posh-git installed inside Windows Terminal on Windows 10.
I have been browsing through answers and tried many of them. The solutions that worked for me were:
- Change a Git setting:
git config --global core.pager 'less --raw-control-chars'
- Add
$env:LC_ALL = 'C.UTF-8'
to the current Powershell profile
These solutions both work separately. I chose to use the Git command as the problem seems to be related to Git, and Powershell profile stays cleaner.