@@ -30,7 +30,10 @@
 is_win = (os.name == 'nt')
 is_posix = (os.name == 'posix')
 is_darwin = (os.name == 'darwin')
-defenc = sys.getdefaultencoding()
+if hasattr(sys, 'getfilesystemencoding'):
+    defenc = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+if defenc is None:
+    defenc = sys.getdefaultencoding()
 
 if PY3:
     import io
 
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 # This module is part of GitPython and is released under
 # the BSD License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
 
+from builtins import str
 from collections import namedtuple
 import logging
 import os