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Breaking changes in 0.10.0 and future changes #170
Description
As reported by several users in #148, version 0.10.0 changed how some .env files are parsed in a breaking way, especially with regards to escapes. I think some of those changes were necessary, but some other may have been unexpected.
Experiment
It was unclear what exactly broke and whether Python-dotenv is consistent with other parsers, so I ran an experiment to compare versions and packages.
The scripts to generate these tables are in bbc2/dotenv-parser-comparisons. I may update them if I find new interesting behavior.
Basic
foo=ab
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a b |
Escaped z
foo=a\zb
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a \ \ z b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a \ z b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a z b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a \ z b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a \ z b |
Escaped and single-quoted z
foo='a\zb'
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a \ z b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a \ z b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a \ z b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a \ z b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a \ z b |
Escaped and double-quoted z
foo="a\zb"
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a \ z b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a \ z b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a \ z b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a \ z b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a z b |
Escaped n
foo=a\nb
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a \ \ n b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a \ n b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a n b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a \ n b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a \ n b |
Escaped and single-quoted n
foo='a\nb'
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a \ n b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a \n b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a \ n b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a \ n b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a \ n b |
Escaped and double-quoted n
foo="a\nb"
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a \ n b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a \n b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a \ n b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a \n b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a \n b |
Quoted newline
foo="a
b"
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | " a |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a \n b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a \n b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a \n b |
Non-escaped space
foo=a b
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a b |
Non-escaped #
foo=a#b
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a # b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a |
| bash-5.0.0 | a # b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a # b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a |
Non-escaped spaced #
foo=a #b
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a # b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a |
| bash-5.0.0 | a |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a # b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a |
Escaped #
foo="a#b"
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | a # b |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | a # b |
| bash-5.0.0 | a # b |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | a # b |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | a # b |
UTF-8
foo=é
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | \ x e 9 |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | é |
| bash-5.0.0 | é |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | é |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | é |
Quoted UTF-8
foo="é"
| parser | output |
|---|---|
| python-dotenv-0.9.1 | é |
| python-dotenv-0.10.1 | é |
| bash-5.0.0 | é |
| js-dotenv-6.2.0 | é |
| ruby-dotenv-2.6.0 | é |
Conclusion
- Non-quoted escapes (valid or invalid): All up-to-date parsers except Bash do the same thing. Bash removes the
\. 0.9.1 added a\, which was obviously incorrect. - Single-quoted invalid escapes: Everything is fine.
- Single-quoted valid escapes: 0.10.1 is the only parser that interprets them as control characters.
- Double-quoted invalid escapes: It's fine except for Ruby.
- Double-quoted valid escapes: All up-to-date parsers except Bash do the same thing. Bash and 0.9.1 keep the original characters instead of interpreting them as control characters.
- Pound sign
#: Interpreted as a comment delimiter since 0.10.0 if unquoted, even if there is no whitespace preceding it. When quoted or prefixed with whitespace, everything is fine except for JavaScript. - Non-quoted UTF-8: Fixed in 0.10.0. When quoted, everything is fine.
- Non-escaped space: Only Bash ignores everything after it (or treats the rest as a command). Other parsers include everything until the end of the line.
My opinion:
- (2, 4, 7) are OK.
- (1, 5, 8) are where Bash differs from other parsers. It isn't obvious what we should do.
- (3, 6) are where python-dotenv 0.10.0 is quite obviously broken and should be fixed.
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