# Getting an exception in actionpack: "invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII" with ruby 1.9

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-an-exception-in-actionpack-invalid-byte-sequence-in-us-ascii-with-ruby-1-9/169090>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 29, 2009, 8:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-an-exception-in-actionpack-invalid-byte-sequence-in-us-ascii-with-ruby-1-9/169090 "2009-05-29T08:57:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Travis\_Reeder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@Travis\_Reeder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Travis_Reeder)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 8:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-an-exception-in-actionpack-invalid-byte-sequence-in-us-ascii-with-ruby-1-9/169090/1 "2009-05-29T08:57:44Z")

</div>

After upgrading to Ruby 1.9 and Passenger, we started getting this  
while uploading a binary data file through a form. I’m not sure if  
it’s ruby 1.9 or passenger, but either way, any help would be greatly  
appreciated.

/!\ FAILSAFE /!\ 2009-05-28 00:39:30 +0000  
Status: 500 Internal Server Error  
invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII  
d /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/  
action\_controller/vendor/rack-1.0/rack/utils.rb:320:in `=~' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/ action_controller/vendor/rack-1.0/rack/utils.rb:320:in`block in  
parse\_multipart’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/  
action\_controller/vendor/rack-1.0/rack/utils.rb:315:in `loop' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/ action_controller/vendor/rack-1.0/rack/utils.rb:315:in`parse\_multipart’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/  
action\_controller/vendor/rack-1.0/rack/request.rb:125:in `POST' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/ action_controller/vendor/rack-1.0/rack/methodoverride.rb:15:in`call’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/  
action\_controller/params\_parser.rb:15:in `call' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/ action_controller/rewindable_input.rb:25:in`call’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/  
action\_controller/session/cookie\_store.rb:93:in `call' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/ action_controller/failsafe.rb:11:in`call’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/  
action\_controller/vendor/rack-1.0/rack/lock.rb:11:in `block in call' <internal:prelude>:8:in`synchronize’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/  
action\_controller/vendor/rack-1.0/rack/lock.rb:11:in `call' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/actionpack-2.3.2/lib/ action_controller/dispatcher.rb:106:in`call’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/  
phusion\_passenger/rack/request\_handler.rb:81:in `process_request' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/ phusion_passenger/abstract_request_handler.rb:203:in`main\_loop’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/  
phusion\_passenger/railz/application\_spawner.rb:340:in  
`start_request_handler' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/ phusion_passenger/railz/application_spawner.rb:298:in`block in  
handle\_spawn\_application’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/  
phusion\_passenger/utils.rb:181:in `safe_fork' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/ phusion_passenger/railz/application_spawner.rb:296:in`handle\_spawn\_application’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/  
phusion\_passenger/abstract\_server.rb:337:in `main_loop' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/ phusion_passenger/abstract_server.rb:187:in`start\_synchronously’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/  
phusion\_passenger/abstract\_server.rb:154:in `start' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/ phusion_passenger/railz/application_spawner.rb:192:in`start’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/  
phusion\_passenger/spawn\_manager.rb:257:in `block (2 levels) in spawn_rails_application' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/ phusion_passenger/abstract_server_collection.rb:126:in`lookup\_or\_add’  
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/  
phusion\_passenger/spawn\_manager.rb:251:in `block in spawn_rails_application' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/passenger-2.2.2/lib/ phusion_passenger/abstract_server_collection.rb:80:in`block in  
synchronize’  
internal:prelude:8:in `synchronize’

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Travis\_Reeder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@Travis\_Reeder](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Travis_Reeder)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/getting-an-exception-in-actionpack-invalid-byte-sequence-in-us-ascii-with-ruby-1-9/169090/2 "2009-06-08T15:17:13Z")

</div>

I ran into a similar problem a while back. Here’s an email thread  
that might help:

[http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel/browse\_thread/thread/76065d11ea3d55c2/13c8e39c788186a8?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=rick#13c8e39c788186a8](http://groups.google.com/group/rack-devel/browse_thread/thread/76065d11ea3d55c2/13c8e39c788186a8?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=rick#13c8e39c788186a8)

Rick