Multiline value not working as expected, better doc example needed

[itaditya]

I have this .env file

CLOUDKARAFKA_CA="-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDAzCCAeugAwIBAgIJAL7UBqvWBRglMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMBgxFjAUBgNV
someMoreLines
+HPBLZVg3o4jtzOJJNnaGCAcAHsm6PkqBhTUhM113r8MWlsR6eAIhIVtdRAxmjaw
6f7ARs8C8A==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
"
CLOUDKARAFKA_CERT="-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIICpzCCAY8CCQCA4JIEmpl1oTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADAYMRYwFAYDVQQDDA12
someMoreLines
SSgZPE8qiN/jucTdLSLRQ0igohq4EnAg8QHXReX2oIlSZb7i8wxCqK/T+9WU0+vB
ToJ+bM0OCJ4d22I=
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
"
CLOUDKARAFKA_TOPIC_PREFIX="aj9g740d-"
CLOUDKARAFKA_BROKERS="velomobile-02.srvs.cloudkafka.com:9094,velomobile-01.srvs.cloudkafka.com:9094,velomobile-03.srvs.cloudkafka.com:9094"

When I use this .env file, the CLOUDKARAFKA_CA and CLOUDKARAFKA_CERT key are both "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----"

Notice the extra ", Am I doing something wrong, please help

[itaditya]

python 3.6.4
python-dotenv 0.7.1

[theskumar]

@itaditya Have a look at #26

[itaditya]

I saw that you have solved the bug, but it's still not working in mine.

[iameugenejo]

your .env file should look like this:

CLOUDKARAFKA_CA="-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIIDAzCCAeugAwIBAgIJAL7UBqvWBRglMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBCwUAMBgxFjAUBgNV\nsomeMoreLines\n+HPBLZVg3o4jtzOJJNnaGCAcAHsm6PkqBhTUhM113r8MWlsR6eAIhIVtdRAxmjaw\n6f7ARs8C8A==\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n" CLOUDKARAFKA_CERT="-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----\nMIICpzCCAY8CCQCA4JIEmpl1oTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADAYMRYwFAYDVQQDDA12\nsomeMoreLines\nSSgZPE8qiN/jucTdLSLRQ0igohq4EnAg8QHXReX2oIlSZb7i8wxCqK/T+9WU0+vB\nToJ+bM0OCJ4d22I=\n-----END CERTIFICATE-----\n" CLOUDKARAFKA_TOPIC_PREFIX="aj9g740d-" CLOUDKARAFKA_BROKERS="velomobile-02.srvs.cloudkafka.com:9094,velomobile-01.srvs.cloudkafka.com:9094,velomobile-03.srvs.cloudkafka.com:9094"

PR #32 would make your .env to work as is.

[itaditya]

This looks a little counterintuitive, why should I add newline characters. Anyways I switched to another solution.

[iameugenejo]

I believe \n has been used as a mean to break lines in a string variable since the beginning of programming languages.

It would be counterintuitive if you use languages or scripts that has multiline string literal feature.

And I guess you are more familiar with those that support it.

[itaditya]

No I didn't mean it like that. I'm saying that the .env feature enabling utils named dotenv available, like node dotenv (https://www.npmjs.com/package/dotenv) and heroku env files don't need the \n. A developer like me coming from these areas would naturally think that if a module is named python-dotenv it would work exactly the same. I hope you understand my point.

[itaditya]

Also I noticed you explicitly mention that this util enables functionality just like heroku. And heroku doesn't complain if I don't use \n. 😉

[iameugenejo]

Well I don't think I mentioned anything about heroku. What my PR did was to allow this module to parse quoted value, and that also allowed multiline string value to be used as it allowed control characters such as \n.

You, or even the author of the other python-dotenv, could've forked this repo, make improvement that's needed and sent PR to this. And I believe that's how Open Source community works. (That is unless the maintainer doesn't maintain the repo anymore or refuses to accept valid PRs)

I'm glad that you found another solution that works, and hope this repo's maintainer merges the other PR I mentioned that solves your issue.

[itaditya]

I'm not complaining about your PR, I don't know anything about it. I'm just a user of this utility and I found one flaw so I pointed it out. At that time I needed a quick solution, the \n thing was not mentioned anywhere, so I waited for a reply. It's great that you eventually replied but I was forced to look for another solution. I agree with you that I should also contribute to this project by making PRs but I think that is not the only way. The first step must be to open issues and find out if the problem is worth working on, and that I did. I understand that you are defending your work and that's fine (we're humans). After I opened the issue @theskumar promptly replied that I should check #26 , that meant that the utility is fine and I'm doing something wrong, so there is no sense in making PRs. Now as you have mentioned that we have to use \n, I and others who will be reading this, will have a working fix for their problems, so in a way we together have contributed to this project. And I think that's just the way OSS works.
PS - The heroku thing is mentioned in the description just below the title of the repo.

[iameugenejo]

Why do you think I'm defending my PR when I'm even suggesting the other PR should be merged, which in turn would replace the changes my PR made.

Great that you realized that this repo lacks documentation about the feature. Why not make your contribution worth more by sending a PR for the improvement to README.md?

[itaditya]

Cool then, I'll make one today