Why is my ``?

Unnecessary < Escaping in HTML Templates: Resolved with text/template

A recent issue arose within a development tool utilizing templates for file generation, specifically readmes and licenses. Everything operated seamlessly, except for instances where the < character would transform into <. However, the corresponding > character remained unaffected.

To illustrate the issue, consider the following code snippet:

Here, the Repo parameter should have been inserted as expected, resulting in:

However, the actual result was:

Documentation analysis provided no clear explanation for this behavior. It seemed illogical for the > character to remain unaffected while the < character underwent escaping.

The solution lies in understanding the purpose of html/template. It is specifically designed for generating HTML output, providing automatic context-sensitive escaping to prevent code injection. The documentation clearly states:

html/template is only to generate HTML output. It provides the same interface as package text/template and should be used instead of text/template whenever the output is HTML.

When the output is not HTML, as is the case here with a readme file, it is more appropriate to use text/template. This template engine does not escape data, resolving the unnecessary character conversion issue. By switching to text/template, the expected output was achieved:

This distinction between html/template and text/template ensures that context-sensitive escaping is applied only when necessary, preventing unexpected character conversions in non-HTML output scenarios.

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