Correct way to define Python source code encoding

Question

PEP 263 defines how to declare Python source code encoding.

Normally, the first 2 lines of a Python file should start with:

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- c         


        

Answer 1

PEP 263:

the first or second line must match the regular expression "coding[:=]\s*([-\w.]+)"

So, "encoding: UTF-8" matches.

PEP provides some examples:

#!/usr/bin/python
# vim: set fileencoding= :

 

# This Python file uses the following encoding: utf-8
import os, sys