diff --git a/example_post-receive.sh b/example_post-receive.sh
index ba87e51..549a7f8 100755
--- a/example_post-receive.sh
+++ b/example_post-receive.sh
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@
 # if name is not set the basename of the current directory is used,
 # this is the directory of the repo when called from the post-receive script.
 
+# NOTE: needs to be set for correct locale (expects UTF-8) otherwise the
+#       default is LC_CTYPE="POSIX".
+export LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
+
 name="$1"
 if test "${name}" = ""; then
 	name=$(basename $(pwd))