settings.toml, CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID, and Unicode

[pgrady]

CircuitPython version and board name

Adafruit CircuitPython 10.3.0-alpha.3 on 2026-06-24; Adafruit Feather ESP32-S2 TFT with ESP32S2
Board ID:adafruit_feather_esp32s2_tft

Code/REPL

# In settings.toml
CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID = "Gen\\u00E8ve"

Behavior

code.py output:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "adafruit_httpserver/server.py", line 241, in _verify_can_start
gaierror: (-2, 'Name or service not known')

Description

Error with Unicode handling in settings.toml for a unicode character (e-grave, è) in the WiFi name. More specifically, this is an issue with the microcontroller's obtaining an IP address, not an environment variable handling from code.py issue.

Additional information

Changing CIRCUITPY_WIFI_SSID to a different valid network name (along with its corresponding password in CIRCUITPY_WIFI_PASSWORD) works correctly/as expected.

[dhalbert]

I think this is a bug in the settings.toml documentation, sorry. There is an extra backslash in "Gen\\u00E8ve". Try "Gen\u00E8ve" instead.

Example I tried
settings.toml

G1 = "Gen\\u00E8ve"
G2 = "Gen\u00E8ve"

in REPL:

>>> import supervisor
>>> supervisor.get_setting("G1")
'Gen\\u00E8ve'
>>> supervisor.get_setting("G2")
'Genève'

I think we doubled the backslash in the documentation, thinking it would be removed during documentation formatting. But it was not.

[pgrady]

Thanks. It works in alpha.3.

It's encouraging to know I haven't lost my mind (yet).

[dhalbert]

reopening because I have a PR to fix the documentation