Sublime Text plugin modification of "exec.py" that works around encoding problems with default builds. Changes start in line 180.

exec.py

import sublime, sublime_plugin
import os, sys
import thread
import subprocess
import functools
import time

class ProcessListener(object):
    def on_data(self, proc, data):
        pass

    def on_finished(self, proc):
        pass

# Encapsulates subprocess.Popen, forwarding stdout to a supplied
# ProcessListener (on a separate thread)
class AsyncProcess(object):
    def __init__(self, arg_list, env, listener,
            # "path" is an option in build systems
            path="",
            # "shell" is an options in build systems
            shell=False):

        self.listener = listener
        self.killed = False

        self.start_time = time.time()

        # Hide the console window on Windows
        startupinfo = None
        if os.name == "nt":
            startupinfo = subprocess.STARTUPINFO()
            startupinfo.dwFlags |= subprocess.STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW

        # Set temporary PATH to locate executable in arg_list
        if path:
            old_path = os.environ["PATH"]
            # The user decides in the build system whether he wants to append $PATH
            # or tuck it at the front: "$PATH;C:\\new\\path", "C:\\new\\path;$PATH"
            os.environ["PATH"] = os.path.expandvars(path).encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())

        proc_env = os.environ.copy()
        proc_env.update(env)
        for k, v in proc_env.iteritems():
            proc_env[k] = os.path.expandvars(v).encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())

        self.proc = subprocess.Popen(arg_list, stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
            stderr=subprocess.PIPE, startupinfo=startupinfo, env=proc_env, shell=shell)

        if path:
            os.environ["PATH"] = old_path

        if self.proc.stdout:
            thread.start_new_thread(self.read_stdout, ())

        if self.proc.stderr:
            thread.start_new_thread(self.read_stderr, ())

    def kill(self):
        if not self.killed:
            self.killed = True
            self.proc.terminate()
            self.listener = None

    def poll(self):
        return self.proc.poll() == None

    def exit_code(self):
        return self.proc.poll()

    def read_stdout(self):
        while True:
            data = os.read(self.proc.stdout.fileno(), 2**15)

            if data != "":
                if self.listener:
                    self.listener.on_data(self, data)
            else:
                self.proc.stdout.close()
                if self.listener:
                    self.listener.on_finished(self)
                break

    def read_stderr(self):
        while True:
            data = os.read(self.proc.stderr.fileno(), 2**15)

            if data != "":
                if self.listener:
                    self.listener.on_data(self, data)
            else:
                self.proc.stderr.close()
                break

class ExecCommand(sublime_plugin.WindowCommand, ProcessListener):
    def run(self, cmd = [], file_regex = "", line_regex = "", working_dir = "",
            encoding = "utf-8", env = {}, quiet = False, kill = False,
            # Catches "path" and "shell"
            **kwargs):

        if kill:
            if self.proc:
                self.proc.kill()
                self.proc = None
                self.append_data(None, "[Cancelled]")
            return

        if not hasattr(self, 'output_view'):
            # Try not to call get_output_panel until the regexes are assigned
            self.output_view = self.window.get_output_panel("exec")

        # Default the to the current files directory if no working directory was given
        if (working_dir == "" and self.window.active_view()
                        and self.window.active_view().file_name()):
            working_dir = os.path.dirname(self.window.active_view().file_name())

        self.output_view.settings().set("result_file_regex", file_regex)
        self.output_view.settings().set("result_line_regex", line_regex)
        self.output_view.settings().set("result_base_dir", working_dir)

        # Call get_output_panel a second time after assigning the above
        # settings, so that it'll be picked up as a result buffer
        self.window.get_output_panel("exec")

        self.encoding = encoding
        self.quiet = quiet

        self.proc = None
        if not self.quiet:
            print "Running " + " ".join(cmd)
            sublime.status_message("Building")

        show_panel_on_build = sublime.load_settings("Preferences.sublime-settings").get("show_panel_on_build", True)
        if show_panel_on_build:
            self.window.run_command("show_panel", {"panel": "output.exec"})

        merged_env = env.copy()
        if self.window.active_view():
            user_env = self.window.active_view().settings().get('build_env')
            if user_env:
                merged_env.update(user_env)

        # Change to the working dir, rather than spawning the process with it,
        # so that emitted working dir relative path names make sense
        if working_dir != "":
            os.chdir(working_dir)

        err_type = OSError
        if os.name == "nt":
            err_type = WindowsError

        try:
            # Forward kwargs to AsyncProcess
            self.proc = AsyncProcess(cmd, merged_env, self, **kwargs)
        except err_type as e:
            self.append_data(None, str(e) + "\n")
            self.append_data(None, "[cmd:  " + str(cmd) + "]\n")
            self.append_data(None, "[dir:  " + str(os.getcwdu()) + "]\n")
            if "PATH" in merged_env:
                self.append_data(None, "[path: " + str(merged_env["PATH"]) + "]\n")
            else:
                self.append_data(None, "[path: " + str(os.environ["PATH"]) + "]\n")
            if not self.quiet:
                self.append_data(None, "[Finished]")

    def is_enabled(self, kill = False):
        if kill:
            return hasattr(self, 'proc') and self.proc and self.proc.poll()
        else:
            return True

    def append_data(self, proc, data):
        if proc != self.proc:
            # a second call to exec has been made before the first one
            # finished, ignore it instead of intermingling the output.
            if proc:
                proc.kill()
            return

        # This is working around the default "encoding" of e.g. Python3 and
        # always tries utf-8 as string decoding. If utf-8 was already default
        # and it failed, try "cp1252" in this case.
        try:
            try:
                str = data.decode(self.encoding)
            except:
                if self.encoding != "utf-8":
                    str = data.decode("utf-8")
                else:
                    self.encoding = "cp1252"
                    str = data.decode(self.encoding)
        except:
            str = "[Decode error - output not " + self.encoding + " or utf-8]\n"
            proc = None

        # Normalize newlines, Sublime Text always uses a single \n separator
        # in memory.
        str = str.replace('\r\n', '\n').replace('\r', '\n')

        selection_was_at_end = (len(self.output_view.sel()) == 1
            and self.output_view.sel()[0]
                == sublime.Region(self.output_view.size()))
        self.output_view.set_read_only(False)
        edit = self.output_view.begin_edit()
        self.output_view.insert(edit, self.output_view.size(), str)
        if selection_was_at_end:
            self.output_view.show(self.output_view.size())
        self.output_view.end_edit(edit)
        self.output_view.set_read_only(True)

    def finish(self, proc):
        if not self.quiet:
            elapsed = time.time() - proc.start_time
            exit_code = proc.exit_code()
            if exit_code == 0 or exit_code == None:
                self.append_data(proc, ("[Finished in %.1fs]") % (elapsed))
            else:
                self.append_data(proc, ("[Finished in %.1fs with exit code %d]") % (elapsed, exit_code))

        if proc != self.proc:
            return

        errs = self.output_view.find_all_results()
        if len(errs) == 0:
            sublime.status_message("Build finished")
        else:
            sublime.status_message(("Build finished with %d errors") % len(errs))

        # Set the selection to the start, so that next_result will work as expected
        edit = self.output_view.begin_edit()
        self.output_view.sel().clear()
        self.output_view.sel().add(sublime.Region(0))
        self.output_view.end_edit(edit)

    def on_data(self, proc, data):
        sublime.set_timeout(functools.partial(self.append_data, proc, data), 0)

    def on_finished(self, proc):
        sublime.set_timeout(functools.partial(self.finish, proc), 0)