Bug #6696: [PATCH] ERB::Util.url_encode should not escape unreserved characters

• Status: Closed
• Assignee: k0kubun (Takashi Kokubun)
• Target version: 2.6
• ruby -v: ruby 1.9.3p194 (2012-04-20 revision 35410) [x86_64-darwin11.4.2]
• Backport: 2.2: WONTFIX, 2.3: WONTFIX, 2.4: UNKNOWN

[madeofcode (Mark Dodwell)]

ERB::Util.url_encode is escaping tilde (~) where it should not according to the RFC.

This fixes that behaviour so that it now correctly avoids escaping all unreserved characters as per RFC 3986, Section 2.3:
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-2.3

Fwiw., this is also how the Perl implementation works:
http://search.cpan.org/dist/URI/URI/Escape.pm#DESCRIPTION

I opened this issue originally on Github, but I think it warrants further discussion, so re-opening here.

[madeofcode (Mark Dodwell)]

Sorry, somehow this ticket subject line got truncated. Newline paste fail.

[shyouhei (Shyouhei Urabe)]

• Subject changed from [PATCH] to [PATCH] ERB::Util.url_encode should not escape unreserved characters
• Status changed from Open to Feedback

FYI, the old discussion is at https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/54

I see the patch itself is OK. The question is to be or not to be able to escape tilde.

[naruse (Yui NARUSE)]

• Status changed from Feedback to Assigned
• Assignee set to seki (Masatoshi Seki)

[duerst (Martin Dürst)]

The tilde was added to the unreserved characters in URIs in RFC 2396. It is specifically mentioned in http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2396#appendix-G.2:

The tilde "~" character was added to those in the "unreserved" set,
since it is extensively used on the Internet in spite of the
difficulty to transcribe it with some keyboards.

RFC 2396 was published in August 1998, about 14 years ago. I think it's safe to make this change now :-).

[naruse (Yui NARUSE)]

This can change but need not, so up to seki, the maintainer.

やってもやらなくてもいい変更だと思っているので、関さんにお任せします。

[naruse (Yui NARUSE)]

• Target version changed from 1.9.3 to 2.6

[hsbt (Hiroshi SHIBATA)]

• Assignee changed from seki (Masatoshi Seki) to k0kubun (Takashi Kokubun)

[duerst (Martin Dürst)]

It's now close to 19 years since RFC 2396, so please fix this issue, thanks!

[k0kubun (Takashi Kokubun)]

• Status changed from Assigned to Closed

Applied in changeset trunk|r58772.

---

erb.rb: Don't encode tilde in #url_encode

Based on patch by madeofcode (Mark Dodwell).
[ruby-core:46168] [Bug #6696] [Fix GH-54]

~ is a unreserved character.
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#section-2.3

[usa (Usaku NAKAMURA)]

• Backport changed from 2.2: UNKNOWN, 2.3: UNKNOWN, 2.4: UNKNOWN to 2.2: WONTFIX, 2.3: WONTFIX, 2.4: UNKNOWN

memo: I think that this is a bug, but it may surprise users to change this behavior at teeny releases. Therefore I decided not to backport this to ruby_2_3 branch.