Certbot: unable to run certbot --nginx - UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii'

We will look into this, as it is certainly something that we should handle, but to work around this, replace the double quotes in comment of server_tokens directive: “Server”

@joohoi

2018-05-05 12:28:44,181:DEBUG:certbot.main:certbot version: 0.22.2
2018-05-05 12:28:44,181:DEBUG:certbot.main:Arguments: ['--nginx']
2018-05-05 12:28:44,181:DEBUG:certbot.main:Discovered plugins: PluginsRegistry(PluginEntryPoint#manual,PluginEntryPoint#nginx,PluginEntryPoint#null,PluginEntryPoint#standalone,PluginEntryPoint#webroot)
2018-05-05 12:28:44,193:DEBUG:certbot.log:Root logging level set at 20
2018-05-05 12:28:44,193:INFO:certbot.log:Saving debug log to /var/log/letsencrypt/letsencrypt.log
2018-05-05 12:28:44,194:DEBUG:certbot.plugins.selection:Requested authenticator nginx and installer nginx
2018-05-05 12:28:44,343:DEBUG:certbot.log:Exiting abnormally:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/certbot", line 11, in
load_entry_point('certbot==0.22.2', 'console_scripts', 'certbot')()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/main.py", line 1266, in main
return config.func(config, plugins)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/main.py", line 1018, in run
installer, authenticator = plug_sel.choose_configurator_plugins(config, plugins, "run")
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/selection.py", line 189, in choose_configurator_plugins
authenticator = installer = pick_configurator(config, req_inst, plugins)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/selection.py", line 25, in pick_configurator
(interfaces.IAuthenticator, interfaces.IInstaller))
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/selection.py", line 77, in pick_plugin
verified.prepare()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/disco.py", line 245, in prepare
return [plugin_ep.prepare() for plugin_ep in six.itervalues(self._plugins)]
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/disco.py", line 245, in
return [plugin_ep.prepare() for plugin_ep in six.itervalues(self._plugins)]
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot/plugins/disco.py", line 126, in prepare
self._initialized.prepare()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_nginx/configurator.py", line 137, in prepare
self.parser = parser.NginxParser(self.conf('server-root'))
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py", line 38, in __init__
self.load()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py", line 45, in load
self._parse_recursively(self.config_root)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py", line 66, in _parse_recursively
self._parse_recursively(subentry[1])
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py", line 56, in _parse_recursively
trees = self._parse_files(filepath)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py", line 206, in _parse_files
parsed = nginxparser.load(_file)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/certbot_nginx/nginxparser.py", line 123, in load
return loads(_file.read())
File "/usr/lib/python3.4/encodings/ascii.py", line 26, in decode
return codecs.ascii_decode(input, self.errors)[0]
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xd1 in position 31: ordinal not in range(128)
2018-05-05 12:28:44,346:ERROR:certbot.log:An unexpected error occurred:

For instance, the mime type files contains this lines:

application/vnd.geocube+xml                     g3 g³;

g³ will make raise the UnicodeDecodeError

> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(62)_parse_recursively()
-> elif entry[0] == ['http'] or entry[0] == ['server']:
(Pdb) l
 57             for tree in trees:
 58                 for entry in tree:
 59                     if _is_include_directive(entry):
 60                         # Parse the top-level included file
 61                         self._parse_recursively(entry[1])
 62  ->                 elif entry[0] == ['http'] or entry[0] == ['server']:
 63                         # Look for includes in the top-level 'http'/'server' context
 64                         for subentry in entry[1]:
 65                             if _is_include_directive(subentry):
 66                                 self._parse_recursively(subentry[1])
 67                             elif entry[0] == ['http'] and subentry[0] == ['server']:
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(64)_parse_recursively()
-> for subentry in entry[1]:
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(65)_parse_recursively()
-> if _is_include_directive(subentry):
(Pdb) subentry
['include', 'mime.types']
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(66)_parse_recursively()
-> self._parse_recursively(subentry[1])
(Pdb) s
--Call--
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(47)_parse_recursively()
-> def _parse_recursively(self, filepath):
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(55)_parse_recursively()
-> filepath = self.abs_path(filepath)
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(56)_parse_recursively()
-> trees = self._parse_files(filepath)
(Pdb) s
--Call--
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(189)_parse_files()
-> def _parse_files(self, filepath, override=False):
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(198)_parse_files()
-> files = glob.glob(filepath) # nginx on unix calls glob(3) for this
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(201)_parse_files()
-> trees = []
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(202)_parse_files()
-> for item in files:
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(203)_parse_files()
-> if item in self.parsed and not override:
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(205)_parse_files()
-> try:
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(206)_parse_files()
-> with open(item) as _file:
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/parser.py(207)_parse_files()
-> parsed = nginxparser.load(_file)
(Pdb) s
--Call--
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/nginxparser.py(115)load()
-> def load(_file):
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/certbot_nginx/nginxparser.py(123)load()
-> return loads(_file.read())
(Pdb) loads
<function loads at 0x7faacac85048>
(Pdb) s
--Call--
> /usr/lib/python3.6/encodings/ascii.py(25)decode()
-> def decode(self, input, final=False):
(Pdb) --KeyboardInterrupt--
(Pdb) n
> /usr/lib/python3.6/encodings/ascii.py(26)decode()
-> return codecs.ascii_decode(input, self.errors)[0]
(Pdb) n
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xc2 in position 10453: ordinal not in range(128)
> /usr/lib/python3.6/encodings/ascii.py(26)decode()
-> return codecs.ascii_decode(input, self.errors)[0]

Thanks for the additional information!

After reading a comment on another thread by user @egberts, I ran the following command:

grep -r -P '[^\x00-\x7f]' /etc/apache2 /etc/letsencrypt /etc/nginx

That command found the offending character "´" in one .conf file in the comment. After removing it (you can edit comments as you wish) and reloading nginx, everything worked again.

@TommyZG can u tell me change which file ?

i found that when i use certbot-auto in windows remote, it throw me this error ,but when i use it in linux remote ,it works great

I had the same problem. I've found the following workaround (on Ubuntu):

1. Run in a console:
   bash sudo locale-gen "en_US.UTF-8" sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
2. Add line LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8" to the file /etc/default/locale.
3. Reconnect SSH.

After doing it, running cerbot --nginx successes.

Hi! The reason is that if you have some non ascii letters in nginx config (even in comments!!!) it will not work.

Closing in favor of duplicate #5337, which has a PR at #5341.

@TommyZG can u tell me change which file ?

It was in one of my .conf files. You have others. It was in the comment line.

I got a similar issue, it was in /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf line 13 to 17:

# 1) limit_req  ^`^s to limit the rate of requests from one IP
# 2) limit_conn  ^`^s to limit the number of connections from one IP
# 3) client_body_timeout  ^`^s to close the connections with slow body
# 4) client_header_timeout  ^`^s to close the connections with slow headers
# 5) send_timeout  ^`^s If the client does not receive anything within this time, the connection is closed.

I removed those comments and it worked.

Thanks @egberts & @TommyZG for the grep tip.

Hy ✌🏻,
you should only using other terminal.
I have the same problem while used mac terminal, than i used windows bash to get it works.

I had the same problem. I've found the following workaround (on Ubuntu):

1. Run in a console:
   shell sudo locale-gen "en_US.UTF-8" sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
2. Add line LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8" to the file /etc/default/locale.
3. Reconnect SSH.

After doing it, running cerbot --nginx successes.

Thanks, it worked for me.