Possible encoding issue with CLI and values containing special characters

[catbusstop]

Issue:
When retrieving a key-value with certain special characters using the CLI, the returned value looks ok until the value is held as a variable or ConvertFrom-Json is used, at which point, certain characters change. £ becomes ú and € becomes Ç, possibly indicating an encoding issue.

Steps to reproduce

• Add a new key-value into AAC with a £ or € in either the name or the value (doesn't matter which, the issue occurs either way)
• Use the CLI to return the key-value: az appconfig kv list --name 'appconfigname' --key 'Test:Settings:*' - powershell output looks correct
• Use the CLI again, but this time, save the output to a variable: $x = az appconfig kv list --name 'appconfigname' --key 'Test:Settings:*'
• Now output $x and you get different values
• The same happens if you use ConvertFrom-Json: az appconfig kv list --name 'appconfigname' --key 'Test:Settings:*' | ConvertFrom-Json

[shenmuxiaosen]

After some offline discussion with CLI team, this issue is related to system's code page. As CLI is written in Python, when directly outputs to console, the output is UTF-8. But if the stdout is redirected, Python thinks the stdout is charmap thus can't encode the character. Here is a pull request related with this issue with solutions. microsoft/knack#178 (review)

[zhenlan]

Closing as microsoft/knack#178 has merged.