Explicit URL Imports import as data:text/html;base64 not as a URL

[steinybot]

Describe the bug

Explicit URL Imports should import as a URL but it is being imported as data:text/html;base64.

Reproduction

https://github.com/steinybot/bug-reports/tree/vite/import-url

import htmlFile from '/public/todo.html?url';
console.log(htmlFile);

results in:

var P="data:text/html;base64,PCFET0NUWVBFIGh0bWw+CjxodG1sIGxhbmc9ImVuIj4KPGhlYWQ+CiAgICA8bWV0YSBjaGFyc2V0PSJVVEYtOCIvPgogICAgPHRpdGxlPlRPRE88L3RpdGxlPgo8L2hlYWQ+Cjxib2R5PgpUT0RPCjwvYm9keT4KPC9odG1sPgoK";console.log(P);

System Info

System:
    OS: macOS 11.6
    CPU: (12) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU @ 2.60GHz
    Memory: 16.04 MB / 32.00 GB
    Shell: 5.8 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 15.12.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v15.12.0/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.10 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v15.12.0/bin/yarn
    npm: 7.7.6 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v15.12.0/bin/npm
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 94.0.4606.81
    Firefox: 91.0.2
    Safari: 15.0
  npmPackages:
    vite: ^2.6.5 => 2.6.5

Used Package Manager

npm

Logs

vite:config cjs config loaded in 2.62ms +0ms
  vite:config using resolved config: {
  vite:config   build: {
  vite:config     target: [ 'es2019', 'edge88', 'firefox78', 'chrome87', 'safari13.1' ],
  vite:config     polyfillModulePreload: true,
  vite:config     outDir: 'dist',
  vite:config     assetsDir: 'assets',
  vite:config     assetsInlineLimit: 4096,
  vite:config     cssCodeSplit: true,
  vite:config     sourcemap: false,
  vite:config     rollupOptions: { input: 'todo.js' },
  vite:config     minify: 'esbuild',
  vite:config     terserOptions: {},
  vite:config     write: true,
  vite:config     emptyOutDir: null,
  vite:config     manifest: false,
  vite:config     lib: false,
  vite:config     ssr: false,
  vite:config     ssrManifest: false,
  vite:config     reportCompressedSize: true,
  vite:config     chunkSizeWarningLimit: 500,
  vite:config     watch: null,
  vite:config     commonjsOptions: { include: [Array], extensions: [Array] },
  vite:config     dynamicImportVarsOptions: { warnOnError: true, exclude: [Array] }
  vite:config   },
  vite:config   configFile: '/Users/jason/source/bug-reports/vite.config.js',
  vite:config   configFileDependencies: [],
  vite:config   inlineConfig: {
  vite:config     root: undefined,
  vite:config     base: undefined,
  vite:config     mode: undefined,
  vite:config     configFile: undefined,
  vite:config     logLevel: undefined,
  vite:config     clearScreen: undefined,
  vite:config     build: {}
  vite:config   },
  vite:config   root: '/Users/jason/source/bug-reports',
  vite:config   base: '/',
  vite:config   resolve: { dedupe: undefined, alias: [ [Object], [Object] ] },
  vite:config   publicDir: '/Users/jason/source/bug-reports/public',
  vite:config   cacheDir: '/Users/jason/source/bug-reports/node_modules/.vite',
  vite:config   command: 'build',
  vite:config   mode: 'production',
  vite:config   isProduction: true,
  vite:config   plugins: [
  vite:config     'alias',
  vite:config     'vite:modulepreload-polyfill',
  vite:config     'vite:resolve',
  vite:config     'vite:html-inline-script-proxy',
  vite:config     'vite:css',
  vite:config     'vite:esbuild',
  vite:config     'vite:json',
  vite:config     'vite:wasm',
  vite:config     'vite:worker',
  vite:config     'vite:asset',
  vite:config     'vite:define',
  vite:config     'vite:css-post',
  vite:config     'vite:build-html',
  vite:config     'commonjs',
  vite:config     'vite:data-uri',
  vite:config     'rollup-plugin-dynamic-import-variables',
  vite:config     'vite:asset-import-meta-url',
  vite:config     'vite:build-import-analysis',
  vite:config     'vite:esbuild-transpile',
  vite:config     'vite:reporter',
  vite:config     'vite:load-fallback'
  vite:config   ],
  vite:config   server: { fs: { strict: undefined, allow: [Array] } },
  vite:config   env: { BASE_URL: '/', MODE: 'production', DEV: false, PROD: true },
  vite:config   assetsInclude: [Function: assetsInclude],
  vite:config   logger: {
  vite:config     hasWarned: false,
  vite:config     info: [Function: info],
  vite:config     warn: [Function: warn],
  vite:config     warnOnce: [Function: warnOnce],
  vite:config     error: [Function: error],
  vite:config     clearScreen: [Function: clearScreen],
  vite:config     hasErrorLogged: [Function: hasErrorLogged]
  vite:config   },
  vite:config   createResolver: [Function: createResolver],
  vite:config   optimizeDeps: {
  vite:config     esbuildOptions: { keepNames: undefined, preserveSymlinks: undefined }
  vite:config   }
  vite:config } +6ms
vite v2.6.5 building for production...
✓ 2 modules transformed.
dist/assets/todo.d8c4cd41.js   0.21 KiB / gzip: 0.21 KiB

Validations

• Follow our Code of Conduct
• Read the Contributing Guidelines.
• Read the docs.
• Check that there isn't already an issue that reports the same bug to avoid creating a duplicate.
• Make sure this is a Vite issue and not a framework-specific issue. For example, if it's a Vue SFC related bug, it should likely be reported to https://github.com/vuejs/vue-next instead.
• Check that this is a concrete bug. For Q&A open a GitHub Discussion or join our Discord Chat Server.
• The provided reproduction is a minimal reproducible example of the bug.

[YLivay]

this happens because of asset inlining.

i agree with issue opener. its a bit of a gray area whether data uris are urls at all. personally i think they are not since they dont specify a "locator" of any kind, so i dont expect them to ever be returned when specifying ?url.

[bluwy]

Perhaps a solution is to never inline HTML assets, I can't think of a usecase where that is helpful. We also have this hardcoded "dont-inline" behaviour for SVGs too.