How to print a unicode string in python in Windows console [duplicate]

Question

I'm working on a python application that can print text in multiple languages to the console in multiple platforms. The program works well on all UNIX platforms, but in windows there are errors printing unicode strings in command-line.

There's already a relevant thread regarding this: ( Windows cmd encoding change causes Python crash ) but I couldn't find my specific answer there.

For example, for the following Asian text, in Linux, I can run:

>>> print u"\u5f15\u8d77\u7684\u6216".encode("utf-8")
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But in windows I get:

>>> print u"\u5f15\u8d77\u7684\u6216".encode("utf-8")
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I succeeded displaying the correct text with a message box when doing something like that:

>>> file("bla.vbs", "w").write(u'MsgBox "\u5f15\u8d77\u7684\u6216", 4, "MyTitle"'.encode("utf-16"))
>>> os.system("cscript //U //NoLogo bla.vbs")

But, I want to be able to do it in windows console, and preferably - without requiring too much configuration outside my python code (because my application will be distributed to many hosts).

Is this possible?

Edit: If it's not possible - I would be happy to accept some other suggestions of writing a console application in windows that displays unicode, e.g. a python implementation of an alternative windows console

Answer 1

There's a WriteConsoleW solution that provides a unicode argv and stdout (print) but not stdin: Windows cmd encoding change causes Python crash

The only thing I modified is sys.argv to keep it unicode. The original version utf-8 encoded it for some reason.

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

""" https://stackoverflow.com/questions/878972/windows-cmd-encoding-change-causes-python-crash#answer-3259271
"""

import sys

if sys.platform == "win32":
    import codecs
    from ctypes import WINFUNCTYPE, windll, POINTER, byref, c_int
    from ctypes.wintypes import BOOL, HANDLE, DWORD, LPWSTR, LPCWSTR, LPVOID

    original_stderr = sys.stderr

    # If any exception occurs in this code, we'll probably try to print it on stderr,
    # which makes for frustrating debugging if stderr is directed to our wrapper.
    # So be paranoid about catching errors and reporting them to original_stderr,
    # so that we can at least see them.
    def _complain(message):
        print >>original_stderr, message if isinstance(message, str) else repr(message)

    # Work around <http://bugs.python.org/issue6058>.
    codecs.register(lambda name: codecs.lookup('utf-8') if name == 'cp65001' else None)

    # Make Unicode console output work independently of the current code page.
    # This also fixes <http://bugs.python.org/issue1602>.
    # Credit to Michael Kaplan <http://www.siao2.com/2010/04/07/9989346.aspx>
    # and TZOmegaTZIOY
    # <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/878972/windows-cmd-encoding-change-causes-python-crash/1432462#1432462>.
    try:
        # <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms683231(VS.85).aspx>
        # HANDLE WINAPI GetStdHandle(DWORD nStdHandle);
        # returns INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE, NULL, or a valid handle
        #
        # <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa364960(VS.85).aspx>
        # DWORD WINAPI GetFileType(DWORD hFile);
        #
        # <http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms683167(VS.85).aspx>
        # BOOL WINAPI GetConsoleMode(HANDLE hConsole, LPDWORD lpMode);

        GetStdHandle = WINFUNCTYPE(HANDLE, DWORD)(("GetStdHandle", windll.kernel32))
        STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE = DWORD(-11)
        STD_ERROR_HANDLE = DWORD(-12)
        GetFileType = WINFUNCTYPE(DWORD, DWORD)(("GetFileType", windll.kernel32))
        FILE_TYPE_CHAR = 0x0002
        FILE_TYPE_REMOTE = 0x8000
        GetConsoleMode = WINFUNCTYPE(BOOL, HANDLE, POINTER(DWORD))(("GetConsoleMode", windll.kernel32))
        INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = DWORD(-1).value

        def not_a_console(handle):
            if handle == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE or handle is None:
                return True
            return ((GetFileType(handle) & ~FILE_TYPE_REMOTE) != FILE_TYPE_CHAR
                    or GetConsoleMode(handle, byref(DWORD())) == 0)

        old_stdout_fileno = None
        old_stderr_fileno = None
        if hasattr(sys.stdout, 'fileno'):
            old_stdout_fileno = sys.stdout.fileno()
        if hasattr(sys.stderr, 'fileno'):
            old_stderr_fileno = sys.stderr.fileno()

        STDOUT_FILENO = 1
        STDERR_FILENO = 2
        real_stdout = (old_stdout_fileno == STDOUT_FILENO)
        real_stderr = (old_stderr_fileno == STDERR_FILENO)

        if real_stdout:
            hStdout = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE)
            if not_a_console(hStdout):
                real_stdout = False

        if real_stderr:
            hStderr = GetStdHandle(STD_ERROR_HANDLE)
            if not_a_console(hStderr):
                real_stderr = False

        if real_stdout or real_stderr:
            # BOOL WINAPI WriteConsoleW(HANDLE hOutput, LPWSTR lpBuffer, DWORD nChars,
            #                           LPDWORD lpCharsWritten, LPVOID lpReserved);

            WriteConsoleW = WINFUNCTYPE(BOOL, HANDLE, LPWSTR, DWORD, POINTER(DWORD), LPVOID)(("WriteConsoleW", windll.kernel32))

            class UnicodeOutput:
                def __init__(self, hConsole, stream, fileno, name):
                    self._hConsole = hConsole
                    self._stream = stream
                    self._fileno = fileno
                    self.closed = False
                    self.softspace = False
                    self.mode = 'w'
                    self.encoding = 'utf-8'
                    self.name = name
                    self.flush()

                def isatty(self):
                    return False

                def close(self):
                    # don't really close the handle, that would only cause problems
                    self.closed = True

                def fileno(self):
                    return self._fileno

                def flush(self):
                    if self._hConsole is None:
                        try:
                            self._stream.flush()
                        except Exception as e:
                            _complain("%s.flush: %r from %r" % (self.name, e, self._stream))
                            raise

                def write(self, text):
                    try:
                        if self._hConsole is None:
                            if isinstance(text, unicode):
                                text = text.encode('utf-8')
                            self._stream.write(text)
                        else:
                            if not isinstance(text, unicode):
                                text = str(text).decode('utf-8')
                            remaining = len(text)
                            while remaining:
                                n = DWORD(0)
                                # There is a shorter-than-documented limitation on the
                                # length of the string passed to WriteConsoleW (see
                                # <http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1232>.
                                retval = WriteConsoleW(self._hConsole, text, min(remaining, 10000), byref(n), None)
                                if retval == 0 or n.value == 0:
                                    raise IOError("WriteConsoleW returned %r, n.value = %r" % (retval, n.value))
                                remaining -= n.value
                                if not remaining:
                                    break
                                text = text[n.value:]
                    except Exception as e:
                        _complain("%s.write: %r" % (self.name, e))
                        raise

                def writelines(self, lines):
                    try:
                        for line in lines:
                            self.write(line)
                    except Exception as e:
                        _complain("%s.writelines: %r" % (self.name, e))
                        raise

            if real_stdout:
                sys.stdout = UnicodeOutput(hStdout, None, STDOUT_FILENO, '<Unicode console stdout>')
            else:
                sys.stdout = UnicodeOutput(None, sys.stdout, old_stdout_fileno, '<Unicode redirected stdout>')

            if real_stderr:
                sys.stderr = UnicodeOutput(hStderr, None, STDERR_FILENO, '<Unicode console stderr>')
            else:
                sys.stderr = UnicodeOutput(None, sys.stderr, old_stderr_fileno, '<Unicode redirected stderr>')
    except Exception as e:
        _complain("exception %r while fixing up sys.stdout and sys.stderr" % (e,))


    # While we're at it, let's unmangle the command-line arguments:

    # This works around <http://bugs.python.org/issue2128>.
    GetCommandLineW = WINFUNCTYPE(LPWSTR)(("GetCommandLineW", windll.kernel32))
    CommandLineToArgvW = WINFUNCTYPE(POINTER(LPWSTR), LPCWSTR, POINTER(c_int))(("CommandLineToArgvW", windll.shell32))

    argc = c_int(0)
    argv_unicode = CommandLineToArgvW(GetCommandLineW(), byref(argc))

    argv = [argv_unicode[i] for i in xrange(0, argc.value)]

#    argv = [argv_unicode[i].encode('utf-8') for i in xrange(0, argc.value)]

    if not hasattr(sys, 'frozen'):
        # If this is an executable produced by py2exe or bbfreeze, then it will
        # have been invoked directly. Otherwise, unicode_argv[0] is the Python
        # interpreter, so skip that.
        argv = argv[1:]

        # Also skip option arguments to the Python interpreter.
        while len(argv) > 0:
            arg = argv[0]
            if not arg.startswith(u"-") or arg == u"-":
                break
            argv = argv[1:]
            if arg == u'-m':
                # sys.argv[0] should really be the absolute path of the module source,
                # but never mind
                break
            if arg == u'-c':
                argv[0] = u'-c'
                break

    # if you like:
    sys.argv = argv

Answer 2

Use a different console program. The following works in mintty, the default terminal emulator in Cygwin.

>>> print u"\u5f15\u8d77\u7684\u6216"
引起的或

There are other console alternatives available for Windows but I have not assessed their Unicode support.