Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError in C locale (probably any non UTF8 locale)

[pravi]

While packaging http_parser.rb, ruby 1.9.1 tests are failing with

/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/json/common.rb:155:in `encode': "\xC3" on
US-ASCII (Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError)

in pbuilder (a clean package building tool which defaults to LANG=C). Looking on the web I found
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12130162/cucumber-fails-with-json-encodinginvalidbytesequenceerror

I have LANG=ml_IN as my default locale and dpkg-buildpackage works
(which uses my system locale). Also ruby 1.8 does not have this
problem.

an interesting discussion I found on this topic
http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/136955

I think it is a bug in json library to depend on system locale. Any
ideas how to fix this?

I was thinking of setting up a UTF8 locale in pbuilder, but that
doesn't seem like the right approach.

You can run LANG=C rspec to reproduce this error.

$ LANG=C rspec
/usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/json/common.rb:155:in `encode': "\xC3" on US-ASCII (Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError)
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/json/common.rb:155:in `initialize'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/json/common.rb:155:in `new'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/json/common.rb:155:in `parse'
        from /media/pravi/forge/debian/git/pkg-ruby-extras/ruby-http-parser.rb/spec/parser_spec.rb:286:in `block (2 levels) in <top (required)>'
        from /media/pravi/forge/debian/git/pkg-ruby-extras/ruby-http-parser.rb/spec/parser_spec.rb:285:in `each'
        from /media/pravi/forge/debian/git/pkg-ruby-extras/ruby-http-parser.rb/spec/parser_spec.rb:285:in `block in <top (required)>'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/example_group.rb:242:in `module_eval'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/example_group.rb:242:in `subclass'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/example_group.rb:228:in `describe'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/dsl.rb:18:in `describe'
        from /media/pravi/forge/debian/git/pkg-ruby-extras/ruby-http-parser.rb/spec/parser_spec.rb:4:in `<top (required)>'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/configuration.rb:819:in `load'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/configuration.rb:819:in `block in load_spec_files'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/configuration.rb:819:in `each'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/configuration.rb:819:in `load_spec_files'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/command_line.rb:22:in `run'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/runner.rb:80:in `run'
        from /usr/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/rspec/core/runner.rb:17:in `block in autorun'