1 files changed, 16 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/urwid/vterm.py b/urwid/vterm.py
index 0c91ca5..05d0c83 100644
--- a/urwid/vterm.py
+++ b/urwid/vterm.py
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ from urwid.widget import Widget, BOX
 from urwid.display_common import AttrSpec, RealTerminal, _BASIC_COLORS
 from urwid.compat import ord2, chr2, B, bytes, PYTHON3, xrange
 
+EOF = B('')
 ESC = chr(27)
 
 KEY_TRANSLATIONS = {
@@ -1324,7 +1325,8 @@ class Terminal(Widget):
 
     signals = ['closed', 'beep', 'leds', 'title']
 
-    def __init__(self, command, env=None, main_loop=None, escape_sequence=None):
+    def __init__(self, command, env=None, main_loop=None, escape_sequence=None,
+                 encoding='ascii'):
         """
         A terminal emulator within a widget.
 
@@ -1342,6 +1344,13 @@ class Terminal(Widget):
 
         'escape_sequence' is the urwid key symbol which should be used to break
         out of the terminal widget. If it's not specified, "ctrl a" is used.
+
+        'encoding' specifies the encoding that is being used when local
+        keypresses in Unicode are encoded into raw bytes. The default encoding
+        is 'ascii' for backwards compatibility with urwid versions <= 2.0.1.
+        Set this to the encoding of your terminal (typically 'utf8') if you
+        want to be able to transmit non-ASCII characters to the spawned process.
+        Applies to Python 3.x only.
         """
         self.__super.__init__()
 
@@ -1360,6 +1369,8 @@ class Terminal(Widget):
         else:
             self.command = command
 
+        self.encoding = encoding
+
         self.keygrab = False
         self.last_key = None
 
@@ -1530,19 +1541,19 @@ class Terminal(Widget):
         self.feed()
 
     def feed(self):
-        data = ''
+        data = EOF
 
         try:
             data = os.read(self.master, 4096)
         except OSError as e:
             if e.errno == 5: # End Of File
-                data = ''
+                data = EOF
             elif e.errno == errno.EWOULDBLOCK: # empty buffer
                 return
             else:
                 raise
 
-        if data == '': # EOF on BSD
+        if data == EOF: # EOF on BSD
             self.terminate()
             self._emit('closed')
             return
@@ -1623,6 +1634,6 @@ class Terminal(Widget):
             key += "\x0a"
 
         if PYTHON3:
-            key = key.encode('ascii')
+            key = key.encode(self.encoding, 'ignore')
 
         os.write(self.master, key)