ansi_html() bug when strings with the same style have been pasted together

I'm observing an error with ansi_html() when strings with the same styles have been pasted together. An example:

library("cli")
asf <- combine_ansi_styles(bg_blue, col_br_yellow)
s <- paste(rep_len(asf(" "), 10L), collapse = "")
h_cli <- ansi_html(s)
print(h_cli)

[1] "<span class=\"ansi ansi-color-3 ansi-bg-color-4\"> </span>         "

Note only the first space is styled with the correct background color and the remaining nine spaces are unstyled. In contrast I believe the right output should instead be:

[1] "<span class=\"ansi ansi-color-3 ansi-bg-color-4\">          </span>"

(note the different placement of the </span>). In contrast fansi::sgr_to_html() seems to correctly preserve a style for all ten spaces:

h_fansi <- fansi::sgr_to_html(s)
print(h_fansi)

[1] "<span style='color: #FFFF55; background-color: #0000BB;'>          </span>"

A possible test case for tests/testthat/test-ansi-html.R:

# https://github.com/r-lib/cli/issues/752
expect_equal(
  ansi_html("\033[91mR\033[39m\033[91mR\033[39m"),
  "<span class=\"ansi ansi-color-1\">RR</span>"
)

where

> paste0(col_br_red("R"), col_br_red("R"))
[1] "\033[91mR\033[39m\033[91mR\033[39m"

fix `ansi_html()` when same same style repeated

Claude Code claims:

I see the bug. In html_cb_text(), each text segment opens a <span> and closes it. But clic__html_start() at line 934 sets state->old = state->new, so when the next text segment has the same style (after a reset+re-apply like \033[39m\033[91m), the comparison sees no difference and skips the span.

The fix: after closing the span in html_cb_text(), reset state->old so the next text segment correctly detects it needs styling.

I also observe that things seem to work if you first apply ansi_simplify() before ansi_html().

fix `ansi_html()` when same same style repeated

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`ansi_html()` bug when strings with the same style have been pasted together #752

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ansi_html() bug when strings with the same style have been pasted together #752

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trevorld commented on May 9, 2025

trevorld commented on Feb 14, 2026

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`ansi_html()` bug when strings with the same style have been pasted together #752