diff --git a/fdroidserver/common.py b/fdroidserver/common.py
index 732d18d2..2c2bb4e0 100644
--- a/fdroidserver/common.py
+++ b/fdroidserver/common.py
@@ -1794,7 +1794,8 @@ def set_FDroidPopen_env(build=None):
     set up the environment variables for the build environment
 
     There is only a weak standard, the variables used by gradle, so also set
-    up the most commonly used environment variables for SDK and NDK
+    up the most commonly used environment variables for SDK and NDK.  Also, if
+    there is no locale set, this will set the locale (e.g. LANG) to en_US.UTF-8.
     '''
     global env, orig_path
 
@@ -1806,6 +1807,15 @@ def set_FDroidPopen_env(build=None):
         for k, v in config['java_paths'].items():
             env['JAVA%s_HOME' % k] = v
 
+    missinglocale = True
+    for k, v in env.items():
+        if k == 'LANG' and v != 'C':
+            missinglocale = False
+        elif k == 'LC_ALL':
+            missinglocale = False
+    if missinglocale:
+        env['LANG'] = 'en_US.UTF-8'
+
     if build is not None:
         path = build.ndk_path()
         paths = orig_path.split(os.pathsep)
diff --git a/tests/repo/urzip-πÇÇπÇÇ现代汉语通用字-български-عربي1234.apk b/tests/repo/urzip-πÇÇπÇÇ现代汉语通用字-български-عربي1234.apk
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0851e066
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/repo/urzip-πÇÇπÇÇ现代汉语通用字-български-عربي1234.apk differ
diff --git a/tests/repo/urzip.apk b/tests/repo/urzip.apk
deleted file mode 100644
index ee5e5cba..00000000
Binary files a/tests/repo/urzip.apk and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/tests/run-tests b/tests/run-tests
index 62d27aa7..c55319da 100755
--- a/tests/run-tests
+++ b/tests/run-tests
@@ -138,6 +138,20 @@ $fdroid readmeta
 $fdroid update
 
 
+#------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
+echo_header "copy tests/repo, generate a keystore, and update"
+
+REPOROOT=`create_test_dir`
+cd $REPOROOT
+$fdroid init
+cp -a $WORKSPACE/tests/metadata $WORKSPACE/tests/repo $REPOROOT/
+echo "accepted_formats = ['json', 'txt', 'xml', 'yml']" >> config.py
+$fdroid update --verbose
+test -e repo/index.xml
+test -e repo/index.jar
+grep -F '<application id=' repo/index.xml > /dev/null
+
+
 #------------------------------------------------------------------------------#
 echo_header "test metadata checks"