[Koha] Import MARC record error: utf8 "\xE0"

[Pongtawat Chippimolchai]

Hello all,

I got the following error while importing MARC records into Koha 3.12.3 (on
Ubuntu 12.04 amd64 via Debian package):

utf8 "\xE0" does not map to Unicode at /usr/lib/perl/5.14/Encode.pm line
174.

The record staged fine but it couldn't be imported. When clicking to view
it in staging area, the same error appear.

I checked the imported file, and it seem to look fine to me. The MARCXML in
the database look ok too. But if I save the MARC BLOB and use marcdump on
it, I got the same error.

The imported file is here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u25mf4dqk69wtgx/error.mrc
The saved MARC BLOB is here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/soawpzmnuy5j7zr/import_records-marc.bin

Running perl -d commit_file.pl show something like this:

-------------
utf8 "\xE0" does not map to Unicode at /usr/lib/perl/5.14/Encode.pm line
174.
 at /usr/lib/perl/5.14/Encode.pm line 174
   Encode::decode('UTF-8', 'ha\x{1e}0
\x{1f}a\x{e0}\x{b9}\x{84}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{9e}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a8}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{b2}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a5}
\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{81}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a4}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a9}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{8e}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{b2}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{98}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{b4}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a7}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{b8}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{92}\x{e0}\x{b8}',
1) called at /usr/share/perl5/MARC/File/Encode.pm line 35
   MARC::File::Encode::marc_to_utf8('ha\x{1e}0
\x{1f}a\x{e0}\x{b9}\x{84}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{9e}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a8}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{b2}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a5}
\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{81}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a4}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a9}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{8e}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{b2}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{98}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{b4}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{a7}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{b8}\x{e0}\x{b8}\x{92}\x{e0}\x{b8}')
called at /usr/share/perl5/MARC/File/USMARC.pm line 172

 MARC::File::USMARC::decode('00932nas0a220021700045000050017000000080043000170200014000600...')
called at /usr/share/perl5/MARC/Record.pm line 81
   MARC::Record::new_from_usmarc('MARC::Record',
'00932nas0a220021700045000050017000000080043000170200014000600...') called
at /usr/share/koha/lib/C4/ImportBatch.pm line 585
   C4::ImportBatch::BatchCommitRecords(13, '', 100, 'CODE(0x5227d58)')
called at /usr/share/koha/bin/commit_file.pl line 85
   main::process_batch(13) called at /usr/share/koha/bin/commit_file.plline 57
-------------

I really don't get the way Perl (and Koha) handle UTF8 at all. If I print
that escaped string out, some character will be readable but the others
appear as ?. For the records that could be imported, if I print out their
data from Perl I see the same pattern (readable char mixed with ?). But
they somehow end up correct in the database.

I have no idea what's wrong here. If you have any clue, please help.

Thank you very much,
Pongtawat