"\xEF\xBB\xBF" error (on Windows)

[suriyaa]

@bkeepers @phlipper @shingara @metavida @Floppy:

Hi guys, 😄

I got an "\xEF\xBB\xBF" error for dotenv while using the basics-of-authentication project from GitHub:

C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv/parser.rb:61:in `parse_line':
Line "\xEF\xBB\xBFGH_BASIC_CLIENT_ID=1234567890" doesn't match format (Dotenv::FormatError)

from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv/parser.rb:45:in `block in call'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv/parser.rb:44:in `each'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv/parser.rb:44:in `call'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv/parser.rb:34:in `call'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv/environment.rb:13:in `load'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv/environment.rb:9:in `initialize'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:15:in `new'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:15:in `block (2 levels) in load'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:59:in `ignoring_nonexistent_files'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:14:in `block in load'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:46:in `call'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:46:in `block in with'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:45:in `each'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:45:in `reduce'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:45:in `with'
from C:/RailsInstaller/Ruby2.1.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.1.0/gems/dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv.rb:13:in `load'
from advanced_server.rb:6:in `<main>'

This error is occurring at dotenv-2.0.2/lib/dotenv/parser.rb on my Windows 10.

What's the problem?

Read also the important issue on github/platform-samples#78!

Yours,
Suriyaa Kudo

[suriyaa]

I found out that the _\xef\xbb\xbf error_ contains probably invisible junk characters (at least from dotenv's perspective) called the Unicode BOM (short name for: _byte order mark__)_.

This project thinks that those characters are part of the command that follows right after.

This is what I can see this message in the log, though the characters are escaped so they're visible to the naked eye: Line "\xEF\xBB\xBFGH_BASIC_CLIENT_ID=1234567890" doesn't match format (Dotenv::FormatError)!

(adapted from http://stackoverflow.com/a/5373369/5157221)

How can I repair the rest of the error warning?

[metavida]

Agreed with your research. The solutions I've seen involve either telling your text editor to not add the BOM character (either via a preference or by saving the file as ASCII instead of UTF-8) or by using an editor that doesn't insert the BOM character (I saw one post recommend Notepad++)

[suriyaa]

@metavida: I use the Windows Editor but it also doesn't work with Notepad++. 😧