gitpython-developers
diff --git a/git/refs/symbolic.py b/git/refs/symbolic.py
@@ -149,9 +149,18 @@ def _iter_packed_refs(cls, repo: "Repo") -> Iterator[Tuple[str, str]]:
             The packed refs file will be kept open as long as we iterate.
         """
         try:
-            with open(cls._get_packed_refs_path(repo), "rt", encoding="UTF-8") as fp:
-                for line in fp:
-                    line = line.strip()
+            # Read in binary mode and decode leniently: ref names packed by `git
+            # pack-refs` are arbitrary byte strings and are not guaranteed to be valid
+            # UTF-8 (see e.g. core.precomposeUnicode-unaffected filesystems, or refs
+            # created on a system with a different locale). Decoding strictly as UTF-8
+            # would raise UnicodeDecodeError and make the entire packed-refs file
+            # unreadable because of a single such ref. Use the same lenient
+            # byte<->str roundtrip ("surrogateescape") already used elsewhere in
+            # GitPython (see :func:`git.compat.safe_decode`) so that such refs are
+            # preserved rather than crashing iteration.
+            with open(cls._get_packed_refs_path(repo), "rb") as fp:
+                for line_bytes in fp:
+                    line = line_bytes.decode(defenc, "surrogateescape").strip()
                     if not line:
                         continue
                     if line.startswith("#"):

diff --git a/test/test_refs.py b/test/test_refs.py
@@ -893,3 +893,37 @@ def test_validity_ref_names(self):
 
         # Valid reference name should not raise.
         check_ref("valid/ref/name")
+
+    def test_packed_refs_with_non_utf8_ref_name_does_not_raise(self):
+        # See: https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython/issues/2064
+        #
+        # Tag (and other) ref names stored in .git/packed-refs are arbitrary byte
+        # strings as far as Git is concerned - they are not guaranteed to be valid
+        # UTF-8. Iterating packed refs must not raise UnicodeDecodeError just because
+        # one of the packed ref names happens to contain non-UTF-8 bytes.
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp_dir:
+            base_dir = Path(tmp_dir)
+            with self._repo_with_initial_commit(base_dir) as repo:
+                sha = repo.head.commit.hexsha
+
+                # A normal, valid-UTF-8 tag, packed alongside the problematic one.
+                good_tag_ref = b"refs/tags/good-tag"
+                # A tag name containing a byte sequence that is not valid UTF-8
+                # (0xE9 here is not a valid standalone/leading UTF-8 byte in this
+                # position), similar to what `git pack-refs` can legitimately
+                # produce for a non-UTF-8 ref name.
+                bad_tag_ref = b"refs/tags/release-\xe9tage"
+
+                packed_refs_path = Path(repo.common_dir) / "packed-refs"
+                with open(packed_refs_path, "wb") as f:
+                    f.write(b"# pack-refs with: peeled fully-peeled sorted\n")
+                    f.write(sha.encode("ascii") + b" " + good_tag_ref + b"\n")
+                    f.write(sha.encode("ascii") + b" " + bad_tag_ref + b"\n")
+
+                # Must not raise UnicodeDecodeError.
+                tags = repo.tags
+
+                tag_names = {t.name.encode("utf-8", "surrogateescape") for t in tags}
+                assert b"good-tag" in tag_names
+                assert b"release-\xe9tage" in tag_names
+                assert len(tags) == 2