diff --git a/libr/cons/cutf8.c b/libr/cons/cutf8.c
index 5a54a53bab..284b26cbec 100644
--- a/libr/cons/cutf8.c
+++ b/libr/cons/cutf8.c
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 #define RD_EIO   (-2)
 
 /* select utf8 terminal detection method */
+#define R_UTF8_DETECT_R2ENV 1
 #define R_UTF8_DETECT_ENV 1
 #define R_UTF8_DETECT_LOCALE 0
 #define R_UTF8_DETECT_CURSOR 0
@@ -205,6 +206,19 @@ static int cursor_position(const int tty, int *const rowptr, int *const colptr)
 
 R_API bool r_cons_is_utf8(void) {
 	bool ret = false;
+#if R_UTF8_DETECT_R2ENV
+	char *e = r_sys_getenv ("R2_UTF8");
+	if (e) {
+		bool is_set = *e;
+		if (is_set) {
+			ret = r_str_is_true (e);
+		}
+		free (e);
+		if (is_set) {
+			return ret;
+		}
+	}
+#endif
 #if R_UTF8_DETECT_ENV
 	const char *keys[] = { "LC_ALL", "LC_CTYPE", "LANG", NULL };
 	const char **key = keys;
@@ -220,8 +234,8 @@ R_API bool r_cons_is_utf8(void) {
 #endif
 #if R_UTF8_DETECT_LOCALE
 	const char *ctype = setlocale (LC_CTYPE, NULL);
-	if ( (ctype != NULL) && (ctype = strchr(ctype, '.')) && ctype++ &&
-		(r_str_casecmp(ctype, "UTF-8") == 0 || r_str_casecmp(ctype, "UTF8") == 0)) {
+	if ((ctype != NULL) && (ctype = strchr (ctype, '.')) && ctype++ &&
+		(!r_str_casecmp (ctype, "UTF-8") || !r_str_casecmp (ctype, "UTF8"))) {
 		return true;
 	}
 #endif
@@ -231,7 +245,7 @@ R_API bool r_cons_is_utf8(void) {
 	int fd = current_tty ();
 	if (fd == -1)
 		return false;
-	if (cursor_position(fd, &row, &col)) {
+	if (cursor_position (fd, &row, &col)) {
 		close (fd);
 		return false;
 	}
diff --git a/libr/core/cfile.c b/libr/core/cfile.c
index d1cab0c2f2..5f65df8a0e 100644
--- a/libr/core/cfile.c
+++ b/libr/core/cfile.c
@@ -221,6 +221,7 @@ R_API void r_core_sysenv_end(RCore *core, const char *cmd) {
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_FILE", NULL);
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_BYTES", NULL);
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_OFFSET", NULL);
+	r_sys_setenv ("R2_UTF8", NULL);
 
 	// remove temporary R2_CONFIG file
 	char *r2_config = r_sys_getenv ("R2_CONFIG");
@@ -257,28 +258,32 @@ R_API char *r_core_sysenv_begin(RCore * core, const char *cmd) {
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_XOFFSET", sdb_fmt ("0x%08"PFMT64x, core->offset));
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_ENDIAN", core->rasm->big_endian? "big": "little");
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_BSIZE", sdb_fmt ("%d", core->blocksize));
-
+#if 0
 	// dump current config file so other r2 tools can use the same options
 	char *config_sdb_path = NULL;
 	int config_sdb_fd = r_file_mkstemp (NULL, &config_sdb_path);
 	if (config_sdb_fd >= 0) {
 		close (config_sdb_fd);
 	}
-
 	Sdb *config_sdb = sdb_new (NULL, config_sdb_path, 0);
 	r_config_serialize (core->config, config_sdb);
 	sdb_sync (config_sdb);
 	sdb_free (config_sdb);
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_CONFIG", config_sdb_path);
-
+#endif
 	r_sys_setenv ("RABIN2_LANG", r_config_get (core->config, "bin.lang"));
 	r_sys_setenv ("RABIN2_DEMANGLE", r_config_get (core->config, "bin.demangle"));
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_ARCH", r_config_get (core->config, "asm.arch"));
 	r_sys_setenv ("R2_BITS", sdb_fmt ("%"PFMT64u, r_config_get_i (core->config, "asm.bits")));
-	r_sys_setenv ("R2_COLOR", r_config_get_i (core->config, "scr.color")? "1": "0");
-	r_sys_setenv ("R2_DEBUG", r_config_get_i (core->config, "cfg.debug")? "1": "0");
-	r_sys_setenv ("R2_IOVA", r_config_get_i (core->config, "io.va")? "1": "0");
+	char *s = sdb_itoa (r_config_get_i (core->config, "scr.color"), NULL, 10);
+	r_sys_setenv ("R2_COLOR", s);
+	free (s);
+	r_sys_setenv ("R2_UTF8", r_config_get_b (core->config, "scr.utf8")? "1": "0");
+	r_sys_setenv ("R2_DEBUG", r_config_get_b (core->config, "cfg.debug")? "1": "0");
+	r_sys_setenv ("R2_IOVA", r_config_get_b (core->config, "io.va")? "1": "0");
+#if 0
 	free (config_sdb_path);
+#endif
 	return ret;
 }