Fix for non-ascii characters in IPYTHONDIR, + unit test.

IPython/config/loader.py

@@ -285,7 +285,8 b' class PyFileConfigLoader(FileConfigLoader):'
             return self.config
 
         namespace = dict(load_subconfig=load_subconfig, get_config=get_config)
-        execfile(self.full_filename, namespace)
+        conf_filename = self.full_filename.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
+        execfile(conf_filename, namespace)
 
     def _convert_to_config(self):
         if self.data is None:

IPython/core/tests/test_application.py

@@ -6,7 +6,7 b' import tempfile'
 from IPython.core.application import Application
 
 def test_unicode_cwd():
-    """Check that IPython can start with unicode characters in the path."""
+    """Check that IPython starts with non-ascii characters in the path."""
     wd = tempfile.mkdtemp(suffix="€")
     
     old_wd = os.getcwdu()
@@ -31,3 +31,37 b' def test_unicode_cwd():'
         app.load_file_config(suppress_errors=False)
     finally:
         os.chdir(old_wd)
+        
+def test_unicode_ipdir():
+    """Check that IPython starts with non-ascii characters in the IP dir."""
+    ipdir = tempfile.mkdtemp(suffix="€")
+    
+    # Create the config file, so it tries to load it.
+    with open(os.path.join(ipdir, 'ipython_config.py'), "w") as f:
+        pass
+    
+    old_ipdir1 = os.environ.pop("IPYTHONDIR", None)
+    old_ipdir2 = os.environ.pop("IPYTHON_DIR", None)
+    os.environ["IPYTHONDIR"] = ipdir
+    try:
+        app = Application()
+        # The lines below are copied from Application.initialize()
+        app.create_default_config()
+        app.log_default_config()
+        app.set_default_config_log_level()
+
+        # Find resources needed for filesystem access, using information from
+        # the above two
+        app.find_ipython_dir()
+        app.find_resources()
+        app.find_config_file_name()
+        app.find_config_file_paths()
+
+        # File-based config
+        app.pre_load_file_config()
+        app.load_file_config(suppress_errors=False)
+    finally:
+        if old_ipdir1:
+            os.environ["IPYTHONDIR"] = old_ipdir1
+        if old_ipdir2:
+            os.environ["IPYTHONDIR"] = old_ipdir2