### Author:  [@dlukefinch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dlukefinch)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 21:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/1 "2019-06-03T21:51:55Z")
On setting up I have the following error:
```plaintext
(): control characters are not allowed at line 1 column 1 -e LANG=en_US.UTF-8
YAML syntax error. Please check your containers/*.yml config files.
```
My password does not have any special characters. I just accidentally included some-don’t ask!
My app.yml file looks like this…
Any ideas?
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 22:00 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/2 "2019-06-03T22:00:18Z")
Was this file created using discourse-setup, or manually?
---
### Author:  [@dlukefinch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dlukefinch)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 22:01 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/3 "2019-06-03T22:01:42Z")
I’m not entirely sure @Stephen. My guess would be manually.
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 22:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/4 "2019-06-03T22:02:33Z")
How did you install the instance?
---
### Author:  [@dlukefinch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dlukefinch)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 22:03 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/5 "2019-06-03T22:03:08Z")
By following [discourse/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md at main · discourse/discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/master/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md)
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 22:04 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/6 "2019-06-03T22:04:35Z")
Ok, so in that guide you’re told to use: `./discourse-setup` which autogenerates the yml file for you. The quickest solution is to re-run it and provide all the correct details.
The YML syntax is sometimes a sticking problem for the unfamiliar, the setup tool will bypass your needing to decipher it.
---
### Author:  [@dlukefinch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dlukefinch)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 22:06 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/7 "2019-06-03T22:06:09Z")
Ok, I have actually rerun the ./discourse-setup again and same problem occurs.
---
### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 22:06 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/8 "2019-06-03T22:06:51Z")
Ok, which symbols exist in your passwords?
Characters such as quotes `"` should be avoided.
---
### Author:  [@dlukefinch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dlukefinch)
#### Post date: [3 Junho , 2019 22:10 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/9 "2019-06-03T22:10:16Z")
Turns out there’s no strange characters in my SMTP password now. Yet I’m still getting the error.
---
### Author:  [@DNSTARS](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DNSTARS)
#### Post date: [4 Junho , 2019 10:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/10 "2019-06-04T10:08:06Z")
This has caught some oddball issues for me before, not sure if you’re already tried it.
> **[YAMLlint - The YAML Validator](https://www.yamllint.com/)**
>
> Validate, Verify and Reformat your YAML documents, optimized for Ruby on Rails
---
### Author:  [@dlukefinch](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dlukefinch)
#### Post date: [4 Junho , 2019 11:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/11 "2019-06-04T11:58:59Z")
Ok, it is sorted now. Started afresh this morning and entered everything REALLY carefully. Process running and expected now. Must have entered something really minute.
Thanks for your responses.
---
### Author:  [@jks](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jks)
#### Post date: [4 Junho , 2019 13:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/12 "2019-06-04T13:16:39Z")
I see you solved this already, but in my experience weird control characters at the beginning of a file usually result from editing in some GUI editor that likes to add the [byte-order mark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark) to text files. They could be invisible, but when you run some tool like `hexdump -C` on them, you see the extra bytes:
```plaintext
00000000 ef bb bf 73 6f 6d 65 20 74 65 78 74 20 68 65 72 |...some text her|
00000010 65 0a |e.|
00000012
```
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [4 Julho , 2019 13:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/yaml-syntax-error-control-characters-are-not-allowed-at-line-1-column-1/119422/13 "2019-07-04T13:16:51Z")
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