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PEP 829: Describe encoding requirements #4929

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warsaw merged 3 commits into from
Apr 19, 2026
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PEP 829: Describe encoding requirements #4929

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Describe encoding requirements
warsaw Apr 19, 2026
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warsaw Apr 19, 2026
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Merge branch 'main' into 829-encoding
warsaw Apr 19, 2026
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20 changes: 20 additions & 0 deletions peps/pep-0829.rst
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Expand Up @@ -215,6 +215,20 @@ continues.
continues to the next entry point.


Encoding
--------

``<name>.start`` files **MUST** be encoded with `utf-8-sig
<https://docs.python.org/3.14/library/codecs.html#module-encodings.utf_8_sig>`_,
i.e. UTF-8 with optional byte-order mark.

``<name>.pth`` files **SHOULD** also be ``utf-8-sig`` encoded as well.
Currently, decoding ``<name>.pth`` files falls back to the current locale if
not encoded with ``utf-8-sig``, but this PEP deprecates that support for 5
years, after which ``<name>.pth`` files **MUST** be encoded with ``utf-8-sig``
as well.


.. _future:

Future Improvements
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -467,6 +481,12 @@ Open Issues
Change History
==============

``19-Apr-2026``

* Added a description of the encoding requirements for ``<name>.start`` and
``<name>.pth`` files.
* Update the migration guidelines.

`15-Apr-2026 <https://discuss.python.org/t/pep-829-structured-startup-configuration-files/106789/99>`__

* During the deprecation period, warnings about ``import`` lines in
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