Encoding Issue with Special Characters in Node.js 22 Docker Image

[newtonaugusto]

Environment

• Platform: Linux (inside Docker container), AWS Cloud (ECS, EC2) and localhost
• Docker Version: any
• Node.js Version: node:22
• Image Tag: node:22-alpine, node:22-bullseye

Expected Behavior

Special characters should be correctly encoded and displayed as "Teste: coração" in all instances.

Current Behavior

When handling special characters like "ç" in strings, the characters are sometimes improperly encoded or displayed as garbled text.

Possible Solution

Downgrade Node.js Version: As a temporary fix, you can switch to Node.js 18 or 21 Docker images where the encoding issue does not occur.
Investigate Locale Settings: Although I tried setting locale environment variables, further investigation into locale handling within the Node.js 22 Docker images might reveal a more permanent solution.
Rebuild Docker Image: Consider rebuilding the Docker image with a different base OS that handles locales differently, or try explicitly setting the encoding in your Node.js application to ensure consistent behavior.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Clone the following repository:
   GitHub Repository
2. Build and run the application using the Node.js 22 Docker image:
   Alternatively, you can pull the pre-built Docker image: itacirgabral/node22alpinetestencode:0.0.1
3. Access the endpoint /status-encoding and observe the returned string containing special characters such as "Teste: coração".
4. Use the wrk tool to perform a load test on the application to increase the chances of encountering the encoding issue:

• Install wrk (if not already installed) using: brew install wrk (on macOS) or download it from the GitHub repository.
• Run the load test with a command like: wrk -t12 -c400 -d30s http://localhost:3000/status-encoding.

5. Observe the output, especially when using Buffer.from('Teste: coração').toString('utf8').

Additional Information

I tested the same application with Node.js 18 and 21 Docker images and did not encounter the issue. It seems specific to the Node.js 22 images.
Locale settings attempted: pt_BR.UTF-8, LC_ALL=pt_BR.UTF-8, LANG=pt_BR.UTF-8

I tried setting various locale environment variables (e.g., LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE), but the issue persisted. This suggests the problem might be related to the Node.js 22 Docker image itself.

[LaurentGoderre]

Are you sure the issue isn't with your dev tools not handling utf8 as default?

[meyfa]

Could be related to nodejs/node#54543

[newtonaugusto]

I'm sure. I ran the same code, with the same environment with both images, one breaks and the other doesn't.

I noticed this issue when I pushed a code change to production that included a single line that added a phone number to messageBird. It shouldn't break, it was the same infrastructure.

[nschonni]

#2135 (comment)
22.8 didn't land upstream till after you opened this, and it may resolve the issue, by as like the other issue, this is an upstream issue that nothing in this repo can fix