HTML comments break down

Question

I have a page that is generated which inserts an HTML comment near the top of the page. Inside the comment is a *nix-style command.

<!-- command --option value --option2 value2 --option3 -->

This comment breaks the page completely. What is wrong with the comment to cause this to happen, and why is this the case?

score 27 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 06 '12 at 11:27

27

Comments in the XML Spec from the w3.org :

For compatibility, the string "--" (double-hyphen) MUST NOT occur within comments.

edited Sep 06 '12 at 11:27

mtk

13,221
16
72
112

answered Aug 07 '08 at 22:39

McDowell

107,573
31
204
267

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '08 at 02:39

If you really want to keep the comment in your page you could use this instead of an HTML comment:

<div style="display:none">command --option value --option2 value2 --option3 </div>

Or even

<div class="comment">command --option value --option2 value2 --option3 </div>

and specify:

.comment {display:none;}

in your stylesheet.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 15 '15 at 19:48

1

Comments at the top of the page before <html> will throw IE into quirks mode, which could explain why the page breaks, if that's where your comment appears.

For more information, check out the "Triggering different rendering modes" on this wikipedia page

edited Dec 15 '15 at 19:48

Mr Lister

45,515
15
108
150

answered Aug 08 '08 at 04:06

Darren Kopp

76,581
9
79
93

HTML comments break down

3 Answers3