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Asked: 2026-05-14T00:26:39+00:00

First, some background: I’m developing a web application using Python. All of my (text)

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First, some background: I’m developing a web application using Python. All of my (text) files are currently stored in UTF-8 with the BOM. This includes all my HTML templates and CSS files. These resources are stored as binary data (BOM and all) in my DB.

When I retrieve the templates from the DB, I decode them using template.decode('utf-8'). When the HTML arrives in the browser, the BOM is present at the beginning of the HTTP response body. This generates a very interesting error in Chrome:

Extra <html> encountered. Migrating attributes back to the original <html> element and ignoring the tag.

Chrome seems to generate an <html> tag automatically when it sees the BOM and mistakes it for content, making the real <html> tag an error.

So, using Python, what is the best way to remove the BOM from my UTF-8 encoded templates (if it exists — I can’t guarantee this in the future)?

For other text-based files like CSS, will major browsers correctly interpret (or ignore) the BOM? They are being sent as plain binary data without .decode('utf-8').

Note: I am using Python 2.5.

Thanks!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Since you state:

    All of my (text) files are currently
    stored in UTF-8 with the BOM

    then use the ‘utf-8-sig’ codec to decode them:

    >>> s = u'Hello, world!'.encode('utf-8-sig')
>>> s
'\xef\xbb\xbfHello, world!'
>>> s.decode('utf-8-sig')
u'Hello, world!'

    It automatically removes the expected BOM, and works correctly if the BOM is not present as well.

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