Handling dev and build config.define inconsistency

[Eazymov]

Documentation is

• Missing
• Outdated
• Confusing
• Not sure?

Explain in Detail

Since dev and build implement define differently when i use this config

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'

export default defineConfig({
  define: {
    'import.meta.env.STRING': '123',
    'import.meta.env.STRINGIFIED_STRING': JSON.stringify('123'),
  },
})

I get STRING: 123, STRINGIFIED_STRING: "123" during development and STRING: "123", STRINGIFIED_STRING: "\"123\"" during production.
It is noted in the docs but how is it supposed to work with that? What should i do if both ways of defining a variable give me different results? Check for mode and pass different values to define? Or am i just misunderstanding something?
Seems like vite should provide consistency by itself

Your Suggestion for Changes

Make consistent behavior between dev and build or add examples to the docs on how to deal with inconsistency

Reproduction

dev https://stackblitz.com/edit/vitejs-vite-ibspf5?file=src%2Fmain.js&terminal=dev
build preview https://stackblitz.com/edit/vitejs-vite-ibspf5?file=src%2Fmain.js&terminal=preview

Steps to reproduce

No response

[github-actions]

Hello @Eazymov. Please provide a minimal reproduction using a GitHub repository or StackBlitz. Issues marked with need reproduction will be closed if they have no activity within 3 days.

[stackblitz]

Start a new pull request in StackBlitz Codeflow.

• vitejs-vite-ibspf5 (Open reproduction)

[sapphi-red]

This bug seems to happen from 4.1.2 (build). (In dev, it happens from pre-2.2)
Adding import.meta.env.* to define should not affect the value of import.meta.env.

[Eazymov]

Adding import.meta.env.* to define should not affect the value of import.meta.env.

https://vitejs.dev/config/shared-options.html#envprefix

Without this feature there will be no way to use env without prefix?

[sapphi-red]

If you add import.meta.env.ENV_VARIABLE to define, import.meta.env.ENV_VARIABLE will be replaced with that value. But import.meta.env won't include ENV_VARIABLE property.

If you want import.meta.env to include ENV_VARIABLE property, you have to add import.meta.env to define.