Keep `\t` and `\f` escapes in UseTextBlocks to avoid incidental whitespace stripping - #1160

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timtebeek merged 1 commit into

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tim/1158-usetextblocks-tab-escape

Jul 1, 2026

timtebeek commented Jul 1, 2026 •

edited by moderne-meeseeks Bot

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What's changed

UseTextBlocks decodes each concatenated string literal to its value before emitting text-block content, which turns escape sequences like \t and \f into literal tab/form-feed characters. When such a literal ends up on a content line's leading edge, javac cannot distinguish it from incidental leading whitespace and strips it during text-block whitespace processing (JLS 3.10.6) — silently changing the string's value (e.g. "\tb" compiles to "b").

This re-escapes tab and form-feed characters back to \t / \f escape sequences when generating text-block content, right after backslash escaping so the introduced backslashes aren't doubled. Indentation added later is unaffected.

Testing

Added keepTabEscapeToAvoidIncidentalWhitespaceStripping and keepFormFeedEscapeToAvoidIncidentalWhitespaceStripping, matching the reproduction in the issue. Full UseTextBlocksTest suite passes.

Fixes UseTextBlocks unescapes \t into a literal tab, which incidental-whitespace stripping can silently corrupt at compile time #1158


          Keep \t and \f escapes in UseTextBlocks to avoid incidental whitespac…

38f6c93

…e stripping

Fixes #1158

moderne-meeseeks Bot added this to OpenRewrite

moderne-meeseeks Bot assigned timtebeek

github-project-automation Bot moved this to In Progress in OpenRewrite

timtebeek merged commit 4cd2123 into main

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timtebeek deleted the tim/1158-usetextblocks-tab-escape branch

July 1, 2026 12:56

github-project-automation Bot moved this from In Progress to Done in OpenRewrite

mergify Bot added a commit to robfrank/linklift that referenced this pull request


          chore(deps): bump org.openrewrite.recipe:rewrite-migrate-java from 3.…

b483835

…37.0 to 3.40.0 [skip ci]

Bumps [org.openrewrite.recipe:rewrite-migrate-java](https://github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java) from 3.37.0 to 3.40.0.
Release notes

*Sourced from [org.openrewrite.recipe:rewrite-migrate-java's releases](https://github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/releases).*

> 3.40.0
> ------
>
> What's Changed
> --------------
>
> * Keep `\t` and `\f` escapes in UseTextBlocks to avoid incidental whitespace stripping by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1160](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1160)
> * Skip UseEnumSetOf empty conversion for static fields to avoid circular class-init ([#1157](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/1157)) by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1161](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1161)
> * Skip `UseMapOf` for `LinkedHashMap`/`TreeMap` in the prose `put()` form ([#1163](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/1163)) by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1165](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1165)
> * Skip AddMockitoJavaAgentToMavenSurefirePlugin when agent already configured in build/plugins by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1166](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1166)
> * Add RedundantUtf8Charset recipe to drop redundant UTF-8 from Files calls by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1167](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1167)
> * Fix Jakarta EE 10 web.xml migration by [`@sakshichitnis27`](https://github.com/sakshichitnis27) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1159](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1159)
>
> New Contributors
> ----------------
>
> * [`@sakshichitnis27`](https://github.com/sakshichitnis27) made their first contribution in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1159](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1159)
>
> **Full Changelog**: <openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@v3.39.0...v3.40.0>
>
> 3.39.0
> ------
>
> What's Changed
> --------------
>
> * Make ExtractExplicitConstructorInvocationArguments templates context-free by [`@knutwannheden`](https://github.com/knutwannheden) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1140](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1140)
> * Convert Javadoc `<br>` tags to Markdown line breaks by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1142](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1142)
> * Preserve angle brackets when converting `@param <T>` to Markdown by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1141](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1141)
> * Fix JavadocToMarkdown's handling of varargs and JDKs newer than the bytecode source/target compatibility by [`@sambsnyd`](https://github.com/sambsnyd) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1143](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1143)
> * Move ReplaceUnusedVariablesWithUnderscore to Java best practices by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1144](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1144)
> * Extend Use{List,Set,Map}Of to recognise prose-statement chains by [`@steve-aom-elliott`](https://github.com/steve-aom-elliott) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1145](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1145)
> * Skip `UseMapOf` when the anonymous `HashMap` is assigned to a concrete `HashMap` variable by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1149](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1149)
> * Fix jakarta.enterprise.concurrent-api version for EE9 and EE10 by [`@evie-lau`](https://github.com/evie-lau) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1152](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1152)
> * Add recipe to replace jakarta jws-api with ws-api in EE10 by [`@evie-lau`](https://github.com/evie-lau) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1151](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1151)
> * Upgrade maven-ejb-plugin alongside jakarta.ejb-api by [`@evie-lau`](https://github.com/evie-lau) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1155](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1155)
> * Upgrade maven-ear-plugin for ee9 and ee11 by [`@evie-lau`](https://github.com/evie-lau) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1156](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1156)
>
> **Full Changelog**: <openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@v3.38.0...v3.39.0>
>
> v3.38.0
> -------
>
> What's Changed
> --------------
>
> * use . instead # for FQN link in Markdown javadoc by [`@barbulescu`](https://github.com/barbulescu) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1134](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1134)
> * Bump maven-pmd-plugin to 3.28.x for Java 25 support by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1136](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1136)
> * Explain why Kotlin modules are capped at Java 24 during Java 25 migration by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1137](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1137)
> * Preserve `@{argLine}` in AddSurefireFailsafeArgLine for JaCoCo coverage by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1138](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1138)
> * Add recipe to extract complex explicit constructor invocation arguments (JEP 513) by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1135](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1135)
> * Bump Kotlin 2.0-2.2 to 2.3 so Kotlin modules can reach Java 25 by [`@timtebeek`](https://github.com/timtebeek) in [openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java#1139](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/pull/1139)
>
> **Full Changelog**: <openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@v3.37.0...v3.38.0>


Commits

* [`6584812`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@6584812) Fix Jakarta EE 10 web.xml migration ([#1159](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/1159))
* [`3d0ad8f`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@3d0ad8f) OpenRewrite recipe best practices
* [`76925b9`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@76925b9) Add RedundantUtf8Charset recipe to drop redundant UTF-8 from Files calls ([#1167](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/1167))
* [`c0d0f67`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@c0d0f67) Skip AddMockitoJavaAgentToMavenSurefirePlugin when agent already configured i...
* [`12386c8`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@12386c8) Skip UseMapOf for LinkedHashMap/TreeMap in prose put-statement form ([#1163](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/1163)) (...
* [`ee2f4c4`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@ee2f4c4) OpenRewrite recipe best practices
* [`5f18964`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@5f18964) Skip UseEnumSetOf empty conversion for static fields to avoid circular class-...
* [`4cd2123`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@4cd2123) Keep \t and \f escapes in UseTextBlocks to avoid incidental whitespace stripp...
* [`16e662d`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@16e662d) Upgrade maven-ear-plugin for ee9 and ee11 ([#1156](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/1156))
* [`b9f0360`](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@b9f0360) Upgrade maven-ejb-plugin alongside jakarta.ejb-api ([#1155](https://redirect.github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/1155))
* Additional commits viewable in [compare view](openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java@v3.37.0...v3.40.0)

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