mathiasbynens / mathiasbynens/jsesc

Don’t replace `\x08` with `\b` in regular expressions

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JavaScript
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Description

In regular expressions, \b has a different meaning than in strings (where it’s equivalent to '\x08'`):

/\b/.test('\b'); // false
/\x08/.test('\b'); // true

But jsesc incorrectly replaces \x08 in regular expressions with \b:

jsesc(/\x08/); // '/\\b/'

Only these single character escapes have the same meaning in regular expressions as in strings:

\f \n \r \t \v \0

Also see #11: \B, \w, \W, \s, \S, \d, \D, \cM, etc. should be preserved.

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the documented jsesc(/\x08/) result and locate the regular-expression escaping path responsible for converting \x08 to \b. Preserve the distinct regular-expression meaning of \x08, then verify the example and related escape cases mentioned in the issue, including those in #11.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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