RFR: 8298045: Fix hidden but significant trailing whitespace in properties files for core-libs code

Magnus Ihse Bursie ihse at openjdk.org
Fri Dec 2 16:52:16 UTC 2022


On Fri, 2 Dec 2022 16:40:51 GMT, Magnus Ihse Bursie <ihse at openjdk.org> wrote:

> According to [the specification](https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/19/docs/api/java.base/java/util/Properties.html#load(java.io.Reader)) trailing whitespaces in the values of properties files are (somewhat surprisingly) actually significant.
> 
> We have multiple files in the JDK with trailing whitespaces in the values. For most of this files, this is likely incorrect and due to oversight, but in a few cases it might actually be intended (like "The value is: ").
> 
> After a discussion in the PR for [JDK-8295729](https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8295729), the consensus was to replace valid trailing spaces with the corresponding unicode sequence, `\u0020`. (And of course remove non-wanted trailing spaces.)
> 
> Doing so has a dual benefit:
> 
> 1) It makes it clear to everyone reading the code that there is a trailing space and it is intended
> 
> 2) It will allow us to remove all actual trailing space characters, and turn on the corresponding check in jcheck to keep the properties files, just like all other source code files, free of trailing spaces.
> 
> Ultimately, the call of whether a trailing space is supposed to be there, or is a bug, lies with the respective component teams owning these files. Thus I have split up the set of properties files with trailing spaces in several groups, to match the JDK teams, and open a JBS issue for each of them. This issue is for code I believe belong with the core-libs team.

**A note to reviewers:**

This PR has been automatically generated by converting all trailing spaces in key-value lines (ignoring empty lines and comments) in the property files into unicode sequences.

In a way, this is a no-op, converting one representation of the already existing space into another. But I think that most of these instances are likely to be bugs, and should thus be fixed.

I think the easiest way to fix those instances is to use the Github "suggestion" review mechanism: 
If you see a value where the trailing space should be removed, press the blue `+` in the gutter as usual, and then in the comment box press the `+/-` icon (or press `ctrl-G`/`cmd-G`). Now you get a copy of the offending line, and can edit it to remove the trailing unicode sequence. I can then easily accept the suggestion into the PR.

But you can also come with review feedback like "remove trailing spaces for all files in directory XXX" and I'll fix that for you.

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PR: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/11489



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