[docutils:bugs] #490 EncodingWarnings in io module

> I'm not sure what the right behaviour here should be.

In my opinion, the project should stop honoring the "preferred encoding" and instead expect UTF-8 unless otherwise specified, as that's going to become the default behavior in Python 3.14 for most IO operations. I'm unsure of compatibility implications. It does appear as if this test (`test_fallback_no_utf8`) would no longer be relevant in that regime, so I'd just delete it.

Regarding the non-UTF8 mode, that does sound more complicated, although maybe that functionality too should be deprecated/removed. That is, IMHO, the user should be offered UTF-8 mode by default and an option to specify an encoding, maybe with "locale" as one option, but otherwise remove the implied "locale" behavior.

I have a very weak understanding of docutils, however, so take my advice with a grain of salt.


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**[bugs:#490] EncodingWarnings in io module**

**Status:** open-fixed
**Created:** Fri Jun 28, 2024 03:34 PM UTC by Jason R. Coombs
**Last Updated:** Thu Aug 01, 2024 02:57 PM UTC
**Owner:** nobody


When running the [distutils](https://github.com/pypa/distutils) tests with `PYTHONWARNDEFAULTENCODING=1`, two warnings are emitted:

```
distutils/tests/test_check.py::TestCheck::test_check_restructuredtext
  /Users/jaraco/code/pypa/distutils/.tox/py/lib/python3.12/site-packages/docutils/io.py:381: EncodingWarning: 'encoding' argument not specified
    self.source = open(source_path, mode,

distutils/tests/test_check.py::TestCheck::test_check_restructuredtext
  /Users/jaraco/code/pypa/distutils/.tox/py/lib/python3.12/site-packages/docutils/io.py:151: EncodingWarning: UTF-8 Mode affects locale.getpreferredencoding(). Consider locale.getencoding() instead.
    fallback = locale.getpreferredencoding(do_setlocale=False)
```

Docutils should honor [PEP 597](https://peps.python.org/pep-0597/) and address these warnings (and possibly others). In my experience, adding `encoding='utf-8'` to any io operation is the best approach - it's straight-up compatible with the default on non-Windows systems and usually honoring the Unix convention is suitable if not preferable on Windows. Not only that, but that behavior will become the default in Python 3.15 or so.


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