Can't import less files encoded in UTF-8 BOM

Question

Can't import less files encoded in UTF-8 BOM

I use the less compiler with node.js and I know there is an issue with the files encoded in UTF-8 with BOM. For this, this workaround works great:

data = data.replace(/^\uFEFF/, ''); // Strip potential BOM

However, when importing files, using @import statements still gives a syntax error on first line. Are there any way to work around this as well?

javascript
node.js
less

Answer 1

The BOM will be stripped in the next version of less.js - 1.3.1. You can also try it out on the github source pages.

https://github.com/cloudhead/less.js/commit/6696368eb351824f33dc0aac67143d8ea80a085a

Answer 2

A BOM in an UTF-8 file makes no sense.

You should fix the source files as many other tools will (rightly) have problems with this BOM. All serious editors are able to write UTF-8 files without BOM.

If you must receive and handle such files, you should automaticaly fix them using for example (operating on a work copy if needed) :

awk '{if(NR==1)sub(/^\xef\xbb\xbf/,"");print}' INFILE > OUTFILE

(taken from Using awk to remove the Byte-order mark)