nodejs/node · error

Quote is '%c' - not sure what to do.\n

Error message

Quote is '%c' - not sure what to do.\n

What it means

After consuming 'u' (and optional '8'), escapesrc expects the next character to be a single or double quote that delimits the string/char literal. If it is neither '\'' nor '"', the tool cannot tell where the literal begins and bails on the line.

Source

Thrown at deps/icu-small/source/tools/escapesrc/escapesrc.cpp:228

  
  if(linestr[pos] != 'u') {
    fprintf(stderr, "Not a 'u'?");
    return true;
  }

  pos++; // past 'u'

  bool utf8 = false;
  
  if(linestr[pos] == '8') { // u8"
    utf8 = true;
    pos++;
  }
  
  char quote = linestr[pos];

  if(quote != '\'' && quote != '\"') {
    fprintf(stderr, "Quote is '%c' - not sure what to do.\n", quote);
    return true;
  }

  if(quote == '\'' && utf8) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Cannot do u8'...'\n");
    return true;
  }

  pos ++;

  //printf("u%c…%c\n", quote, quote);

  for(; pos < linestr.size(); pos++) {
    if(linestr[pos] == quote) {
      if(utf8) {
        return fixu8(linestr, origpos, pos); // fix u8"..."
      } else {
        return false; // end of quote

View on GitHub (pinned to 1b2de5e052)

Solutions

1. Inspect the reported line and ensure any u/u8/U/L literal is written as a contiguous prefix+quote (e.g. u8"...", u'x') with no intervening characters.
2. If the 'u' is part of an identifier, rename it or add a space so the scanner does not treat it as a prefix (the scan heuristic triggers on the bare letter).
3. Avoid feeding source files to escapesrc that the scanner cannot classify; exclude such files from the escapesrc build step.

Example fix

// before
u8data x;            // 'u8' looks like a prefix to the scanner

// after
u8_data_t x;         // rename so it is not mistaken for a u8 literal

// reject a 'u' not followed by a quote early, before dispatching to fixAt
char nx = (pos+1 < linestr.size()) ? linestr[pos+1] : 0;
if (linestr[pos]=='u' && nx!='\'' && nx!='"' && nx!='8') { /* treat as identifier, not a literal */ }

When it happens

Trigger: Source text where a 'u' token is immediately followed by a non-quote character, such as an identifier starting with u (e.g. `unsigned`, `uint32_t`), `u8` used as part of a longer identifier, or whitespace/formatting that defeats the scanner's prefix detection.

Common situations: Variable/type names beginning with u that the line scanner misclassifies as a string prefix; macro expansions producing `u` adjacent to non-quote text; whitespace-sensitive C++ where the scanner expects no space between prefix and quote.

Related errors

• Not a 'u'?
• Cannot do u8'...'\n
• %s: usage: %s infile.cpp outfile.cpp
• Illegal code point U+%X\n
• Illegal utf-8 sequence at Column: %d\n

AI-assisted analysis of nodejs/node@1b2de5e052 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5280cf24d3c36c35. Report an issue: GitHub.