flake8 crashes, unknown encoding with python file

[sehmaschine]

when saving a simple python file with atom, flake 8 crashes (works with the command line though). I'm on OSX, flake8 installed with pip install flake8. I'm using the latest versions of atom and linter-flake8.

here´s the error message ...

linter-flake8:: Flake8 returned an error Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/flake8", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/main/cli.py", line 16, in main
    app.run(argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/main/application.py", line 348, in run
    self._run(argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/main/application.py", line 335, in _run
    self.initialize(argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/main/application.py", line 319, in initialize
    self.parse_configuration_and_cli(argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/main/application.py", line 168, in parse_configuration_and_cli
    self.option_manager, argv
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/options/aggregator.py", line 47, in aggregate_options
    original_values.isolated)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/options/config.py", line 282, in parse
    return self.merge_user_and_local_config()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/options/config.py", line 246, in merge_user_and_local_config
    config = self.parse_local_config()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/options/config.py", line 206, in parse_local_config
    config = self.config_finder.local_configs()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/options/config.py", line 107, in local_configs
    config, found_files = self._read_config(self.local_config_files())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/flake8/options/config.py", line 56, in _read_config
    found_files = config.read(files)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/python/2.7.13/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/backports/configparser/__init__.py", line 704, in read
    with open(filename, encoding=encoding) as fp:
LookupError: unknown encoding:

It seems to come down to line 56 in flake8/options/config.py. If I change that line from

found_files = config.read(files)

to

found_files = config.read(files, encoding="UTF-8")

everything works fine.

Therefore, I'm not sure this issue is related to linter-flake8. But it´s still weird that flake8 works from the command line.

[danpalmer]

I've just seen a similar error, and it was being caused by a flake8 plugin, not flake8 or linter-flake8. For anyone encountering this it's worth checking your plugins.

[AI-Ahmed]

@sehmaschine , and @danpalmer your problem will be fixed after following my steps in this link; Fix-Linter-flak8.