Different .env parsing in Deno vs Docker (KEY="a b c" issue)

[jeiea]

I tried using the same .env file from Deno with Docker via --env-file=.env, but I ran into this issue:

KEY="a b c"
# deno:   { KEY: "a b c" }
# docker: { KEY: "\"a b c\"" }

It seems that Deno behaves differently from most other tools and languages. Tracing the cause leads back to dotenvy’s behavior.

This behavior is not incorrect but I think it can be a source of inconvenience.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a crate that could be swapped in easily, and changing the current implementation would likely be a breaking change, so I can’t make a concrete proposal.

I just posted here to see if anyone else has run into the same inconvenience — feel free to react with upvote if you have.

[anntnzrb]

Deno uses the dotenvy crate which strips quotes from .env values (standard dotenv behavior), while Docker's --env-file preserves them (Docker-specific quirk, see moby/moby#46773). For KEY="a b c": Deno returns a b c, Docker returns "a b c". Workarounds: (1) use separate .env files for each tool, (2) normalize in Docker entrypoint: export KEY=$(echo "$KEY" | sed 's/^"\(.*\)"$/\1/'), or (3) use docker-compose which handles quotes more consistently.

[luckyman0026]

I’ve noticed the same behavior when using Docker with .env files.
A simple workaround that worked for me was to remove the quotes and handle spaces carefully, like:

KEY=a b c

Alternatively, using a parser that correctly handles quoted values can help.
It’s interesting to see how Deno and Docker handle this differently. Thanks for sharing your findings!