fix: allow empty environment variable values to override defaults#32
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fix: allow empty environment variable values to override defaults#32
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Remove the long-standing hack that treated empty environment variable values as unset. This prevented users from clearing a default value by setting an env var to an empty string (e.g. CODER_LOGGING_HUMAN="" to disable human logging). The original comment noted this should have been removed in May 2023 after deployments had time to migrate.
Verify that EmptyValue sets ValueSource to ValueSourceEnv, and add a new EmptyValueUnset test confirming that a truly absent env var preserves the default.
geokat
approved these changes
May 1, 2026
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Fixes https://linear.app/codercom/issue/PLAT-156
Problem
Empty string variable values are treated as unset:
VAR="".Unset variables do not override defaults.
So setting
CODER_LOGGING_HUMAN=""does not disable the default behavior of human logging on.Change
Remove the
|| envVal == ""check fromParseEnv()inoption.go. The original code had a comment acknowledging this was a hack with a TODO to remove it in May 2023, after deployments had time to migrate. That deadline passed over three years ago.Before
After
The
EmptyValuetest is updated to assert the corrected behavior: an explicitly empty env var now overrides the default.