diff -r 8dcd49938611 Lib/subprocess.py
--- a/Lib/subprocess.py	Fri Jun 12 01:14:53 2009 +0200
+++ b/Lib/subprocess.py	Sat Jun 13 18:11:30 2009 +0000
@@ -369,6 +369,7 @@
 import traceback
 import gc
 import signal
+import codecs
 
 # Exception classes used by this module.
 class CalledProcessError(Exception):
@@ -584,10 +585,15 @@
                  stdin=None, stdout=None, stderr=None,
                  preexec_fn=None, close_fds=False, shell=False,
                  cwd=None, env=None, universal_newlines=False,
-                 startupinfo=None, creationflags=0):
+                 startupinfo=None, creationflags=0, encoding=None,
+                 errors='strict'):
         """Create new Popen instance."""
         _cleanup()
 
+        if encoding is not None:
+            reader = codecs.getreader(encoding)
+            writer = codecs.getwriter(encoding)
+
         self._child_created = False
         if not isinstance(bufsize, (int, long)):
             raise TypeError("bufsize must be an integer")
@@ -652,16 +658,22 @@
 
         if p2cwrite is not None:
             self.stdin = os.fdopen(p2cwrite, 'wb', bufsize)
+            if encoding is not None:
+                self.stdin = writer(self.stdin, errors)
         if c2pread is not None:
             if universal_newlines:
                 self.stdout = os.fdopen(c2pread, 'rU', bufsize)
             else:
                 self.stdout = os.fdopen(c2pread, 'rb', bufsize)
+            if encoding is not None:
+                self.stdout = reader(self.stdout, errors)
         if errread is not None:
             if universal_newlines:
                 self.stderr = os.fdopen(errread, 'rU', bufsize)
             else:
                 self.stderr = os.fdopen(errread, 'rb', bufsize)
+            if encoding is not None:
+                self.stderr = reader(self.stderr, errors)
 
 
     def _translate_newlines(self, data):