> The problem with command line arguments is that they don't necessarily
> have just one encoding (just like env vars may well use more than
> one encoding) on Unix platforms.

The issue #8776 proposes the creation of sys.argv.

> When using path and file names on the command line they will likely
> use the file system encoding. When passing in configuration variables,
> the arguments will likely use the current locale settings.

Ok, and? We have to pick up one and use it. We cannot guess the encoding of 
each argument, nor change sys.argv to use bytes. (And the creation sys.argvb 
will not solve this issue.)

I still think that using the filesystem encoding is not possible for technical 
reasons (it might be possible, but it will be very hard), whereas I attached a 
working patch to use the locale encoding.