Use fpm-cookery to build packages with UTF-8 descriptions

Gemfile

source 'https://rubygems.org'

gem 'fpm'
gem 'fpm-cookery'

Rakefile

task :default => :build

directory 'bin'
file 'bin/fpm-cook' do
  Kernel.system 'bundle', 'install', '--binstubs', '--path=vendor'
end

task :build => 'bin/fpm-cook' do
  Kernel.system 'bin/fpm-cook', 'package', '-t', 'deb', 'recipe.rb'
  Kernel.system 'bin/fpm-cook', 'package', '-t', 'rpm', 'recipe.rb'

  puts 'Packages built. Results are in the pkg directory'
end

recipe.rb

# encoding: UTF-8

class MoreCowbell < FPM::Cookery::Recipe
  source '', :with => :noop

  name     'more-cowbell'
  license  'MIT'
  version  '1.0.0'
  revision 0
  arch     'noarch'

  description 'Apologies to Blue Öyster Cult.'

  def build
    File.open(workdir('more_cowbell'), 'w') do |f|
      f.write <<-EOF
#!/bin/bash
echo "This node NEEDS more cowbell!"
      EOF
    end
    `chmod +x #{workdir('more_cowbell')}`
  end

  def install
    destdir('bin').install workdir('more_cowbell')
  end
end