ERB and EPP templates handle CRLF line endings inconsistently

Via williams.geoff on DOCUMENT-779:

expected result

When applying a puppet manifest and its EPP template using CRLF line endings to generate a file, the generated file should also use CRLF line endings.

When using a CRLF escape sequence in ERB or EPP templates (\r\n), Puppet should replace the sequence with a CRLF line ending in the generated file.

This is documented at Handling line endings on Resource tips and Examples: File on Windows:

• If a file resource uses the content or source attributes, Puppet will write the file in “binary” mode, using whatever line endings are present in the content.
  • If the manifest, template, or source file is saved with CRLF line endings, Puppet will use those endings in the destination file.
  • If the manifest, template, or source file is saved with LF line endings, you can use the \r\n escape sequence to create literal CRLFs.

actual result

Following the instructions produces one long line of text instead of text with CRLF line breaks, and \r\n appears literally in the output instead of being replaced with a CRLF line break.

test case

test.pp:

file { "c:/test.txt":

  content => epp("c:/test.epp")

}

test.epp:

line 1

line 2

:P

test.txt (result)

line 1line 2:P

Files were created in notepad to get the line endings. See the attachment.

Escape codes in the template:

test.epp:

line 1\r\n

line 2\r\n

:P\r\n

test.txt output:

line 1\r\nline 2\r\n:P\r\n

How to run testcase (save to c:):

puppet apply c:\test.pp

workaround
Traditional erb templates' template() handle CRLF line endings as documented and expected, although these also result in literal \r\n in the output, which still conflicts with the documentation.