Added a console option to specify the encoding to use for doctest files. Defaults to UTF-8.

_pytest/doctest.py

@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ def pytest_addoption(parser):
         action="store_true", default=False,
         help="ignore doctest ImportErrors",
         dest="doctest_ignore_import_errors")
+    group.addoption("--doctest-encoding",
+        type=str.lower, default="utf-8",
+        help="choose the encoding to use for doctest files",
+        dest="doctestencoding")
 
 
 def pytest_collect_file(path, parent):
@@ -171,7 +175,7 @@ class DoctestTextfile(pytest.Module):
 
         # inspired by doctest.testfile; ideally we would use it directly,
         # but it doesn't support passing a custom checker
-        text = self.fspath.read()
+        text = self.fspath.read_text(self.config.getoption("doctestencoding"))
         filename = str(self.fspath)
         name = self.fspath.basename
         globs = {'__name__': '__main__'}

doc/en/doctest.rst

@@ -11,6 +11,13 @@ can change the pattern by issuing::
 on the command line. Since version ``2.9``, ``--doctest-glob``
 can be given multiple times in the command-line.
 
+You can specify the encoding that will be used for those doctest files
+using the ``--doctest-encoding`` command line option::
+
+    pytest --doctest-encoding='ascii'
+
+The default encoding is UTF-8.
+
 You can also trigger running of doctests
 from docstrings in all python modules (including regular
 python test modules)::
@@ -52,9 +59,9 @@ then you can just invoke ``pytest`` without command line options::
     platform linux -- Python 3.5.2, pytest-3.0.4, py-1.4.31, pluggy-0.4.0
     rootdir: $REGENDOC_TMPDIR, inifile: pytest.ini
     collected 1 items
-    
+
     mymodule.py .
-    
+
     ======= 1 passed in 0.12 seconds ========
 
 It is possible to use fixtures using the ``getfixture`` helper::