'YAMLError: unexpected end of the stream' when _quarto.yml is not present

[rgaiacs]

Description

Consider the minimal working example where index.qmd is

---
title: MWE
---

## Section
This is a simple placeholder for the manuscript's main document.

I remember be able to successfuly render the file running quarto render index.qmd --to html.

Today, I'm gettting

ERROR: YAMLError: unexpected end of the stream within a double quoted scalar at line 3, column 1:
    
    ^

Stack trace:
    
    ^
    at generateError (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:10487:12)
    at throwError (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:10490:11)
    at readDoubleQuotedScalar (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:10836:12)
    at composeNode (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11309:125)
    at readBlockMapping (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11124:17)
    at composeNode (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11306:84)
    at readDocument (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11420:5)
    at loadDocuments (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11455:9)
    at load (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11460:23)
    at parse3 (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11470:12)

Create a empty _quarto.yml (for example, using touch _quarto.yml) resolves the above error.

quarto check gives me

[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.1.2: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.55.0: OK
      Deno version 1.33.2: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.4.126
      Path: /opt/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

ERROR: YAMLError: unexpected end of the stream within a double quoted scalar at line 3, column 1:
    
    ^

Stack trace:
    
    ^
    at generateError (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:10487:12)
    at throwError (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:10490:11)
    at readDoubleQuotedScalar (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:10836:12)
    at composeNode (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11309:125)
    at readBlockMapping (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11124:17)
    at composeNode (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11306:84)
    at readDocument (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11420:5)
    at loadDocuments (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11455:9)
    at load (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11460:23)
    at parse3 (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:11470:12)

[mcanouil]

I can't reproduce using your example, either with 1.3 or development version.

I suspect, you have something else in your environment.

[mcanouil]

There is definitely something wrong in your environment as quarto check failed to complete.

[cscheid]

I can't reproduce it either, with 1.4.126 specifically:

$ quarto --version
1.4.126
$ quarto render test.qmd
pandoc
  to: html
  output-file: test.html
  standalone: true
  section-divs: true
  html-math-method: mathjax
  wrap: none
  default-image-extension: png

metadata
  document-css: false
  link-citations: true
  date-format: long
  lang: en
  title: MWE

Output created: test.html

[rgaiacs]

#5476 (comment) help me to understand what was happening:

quarto render first tries to see if it's inside a project, and it does so by scanning parent directories for _quarto.yml. It found one, and it happened to be the bad one without a colon.

Remove the _quarto.yml resolved the issue.

@mcanouil @cscheid Can I suggest to print the path of _quarto.yml that is being loaded. I think this will help with problems like this in the future.

[cscheid]

The thing is, I can't reproduce your quarto check problem even with a bad _quarto.yml file.

[rgaiacs]

I should had copy the bad _quarto.yml before delete it. I had the bad _quarto.yml file at /tmp/_quarto.yml and I was calling quarto check from /tmp/tmp.foo.bar/.

[cscheid]

I tried that as well.

$ cd /tmp
$ cat _quarto.yml
foo: 'This is a bad string
123_asd: 
baddd"
$ cd tmp.foo.bar
$ quarto check

[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.1.2: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.55.0: OK
      Deno version 1.33.2: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.4.126
      Path: /Users/cscheid/repos/github/cscheid/quarto-regress/releases/v1.4.126/bin

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.10.10
      Path: /Users/cscheid/virtualenvs/homebrew-python3/bin/python3
      Jupyter: 5.1.3
      Kernels: python3, julia-1.8

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........OK
      Version: 4.2.2
      Path: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources
      LibPaths:
        - /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.2-arm64/Resources/library
      knitr: 1.41
      rmarkdown: 2.20

[✓] Checking Knitr engine render......OK