Demonstrate an issue with encoding of error messages

gistfile1.txt

Created database encoding_test_1325444057
Error message encoding is: ASCII-8BIT
#<Encoding::CompatibilityError: incompatible character encodings: UTF-8 and ASCII-8BIT>
pg_issue.rb:17:in `rescue in <main>'
pg_issue.rb:7:in `<main>'
Dropped database encoding_test_1325444057

pg_error_encoding_issue.rb

# encoding: UTF-8
require 'pg'

dbname = "encoding_test_#{Time.now.to_i}"
`createdb -E UTF-8 #{dbname}`
puts "Created database #{dbname}"
begin
  conn = PGconn.connect "localhost", 5432, "", "", dbname
  conn.exec "create table foo (bar text)"
  # This command produces a syntax error
  sql = "insert into foo values ('Côte d'Ivoire')"
  conn.exec sql
rescue => e
  # The error message from PG is not in UTF-8, but ASCII-8BIT
  puts "Error message encoding is: #{e.message.encoding.name}"
  begin
    puts "The query was #{sql}; the error message is: #{e.message}"
  rescue => e2
    puts e2.inspect
    puts e2.backtrace
  end
end
conn.close
`dropdb #{dbname}`
puts "Dropped database #{dbname}"