From 0ee1c3677918fd3eaa7b59a6d5e98c253049baa0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Matt Davis <6775756+nitzmahone@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 30 May 2025 14:39:45 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] local connection always passes str to Popen (#85239)

---
 changelogs/fragments/local_popen_text.yml | 2 ++
 lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py   | 4 ++--
 2 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 changelogs/fragments/local_popen_text.yml

diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/local_popen_text.yml b/changelogs/fragments/local_popen_text.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..76053d2cdf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/local_popen_text.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - local connection plugin - The command-line used to create subprocesses is now always ``str`` to avoid issues with debuggers and profilers.
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py
index 934ef52738c..af5e8d66d00 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/local.py
@@ -101,9 +101,9 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         display.debug("opening command with Popen()")
 
         if isinstance(cmd, (text_type, binary_type)):
-            cmd = to_bytes(cmd)
+            cmd = to_text(cmd)
         else:
-            cmd = map(to_bytes, cmd)
+            cmd = map(to_text, cmd)
 
         pty_primary = None
         stdin = subprocess.PIPE