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Homebrew: “Invalid Multibyte Escape” Error

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PROBLEM

When running brew on OS X Maverick, you get this error:-

Error: /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/download_strategy.rb:84: invalid multibyte escape: /^\037\213/
invalid multibyte escape: /^\037\235/
Please report this bug: https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/Checklist-before-filing-a-new-issue
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:45:in `require'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/rubygems/core_ext/kernel_require.rb:45:in `require'

SOLUTION

After upgrading to OS X Mavericks, the default version of Ruby is v2.0, causing Homebrew to break because it relies on v1.8. See issue #23655 for more information.

To fix this, run the following command:-

brew update

If you are getting the “Permission Denied” errors when running the above command, run the following command to fix the permission problem:-

# Assuming your user name is USER_HERO
sudo chown -R USER_HERO:admin /usr/local
cd /usr/local
git reset --hard origin/master
brew update

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Comments

One response to “Homebrew: “Invalid Multibyte Escape” Error”

  1. ninja_coder Avatar
    ninja_coder

    Worked like a charm. Thanks for posting this.

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