diff --git a/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py b/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
--- a/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
@@ -23,20 +23,33 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
-def str2bool(s):
-    if s is None:
+
+def str2bool(_str):
+    """
+    returs True/False value from given string, it tries to translate the
+    string into boolean
+
+    :param _str: string value to translate into boolean
+    :rtype: boolean
+    :returns: boolean from given string
+    """
+    if _str is None:
         return False
-    if s in (True, False):
-        return s
-    s = str(s).strip().lower()
-    return s in ('t', 'true', 'y', 'yes', 'on', '1')
+    if _str in (True, False):
+        return _str
+    _str = str(_str).strip().lower()
+    return _str in ('t', 'true', 'y', 'yes', 'on', '1')
+
 
 def generate_api_key(username, salt=None):
     """
-    Generates uniq API key for given username
+    Generates unique API key for given username,if salt is not given
+    it'll be generated from some random string
 
     :param username: username as string
     :param salt: salt to hash generate KEY
+    :rtype: str
+    :returns: sha1 hash from username+salt
     """
     from tempfile import _RandomNameSequence
     import hashlib
@@ -46,23 +59,23 @@ def generate_api_key(username, salt=None
 
     return hashlib.sha1(username + salt).hexdigest()
 
-def safe_unicode(_str):
+
+def safe_unicode(_str, from_encoding='utf8'):
     """
     safe unicode function. In case of UnicodeDecode error we try to return
-    unicode with errors replace, if this fails we return unicode with
-    string_escape decoding
+    unicode with errors replace
+
+    :param _str: string to decode
+    :rtype: unicode
+    :returns: unicode object
     """
 
     if isinstance(_str, unicode):
         return _str
 
     try:
-        u_str = unicode(_str)
+        u_str = unicode(_str, from_encoding)
     except UnicodeDecodeError:
-        try:
-            u_str = _str.decode('utf-8', 'replace')
-        except UnicodeDecodeError:
-            #incase we have a decode error just represent as byte string
-            u_str = unicode(_str.encode('string_escape'))
+        u_str = unicode(_str, from_encoding, 'replace')
 
-    return u_str
\ No newline at end of file
+    return u_str