I know a new editor is in the works, but presumably the underlying markdown will be the same, and its interpolation will stay the same, so… In triple-backtick (```) code blocks, I’ve noticed that some formatting is improperly applied. Here’s a screenshot from me fixing a user’s post. This is the be…

Hi @ganncamp . What is the value of the “Default code lang” site setting on that forum?

The auto lang for this particular code block is detecting the language as markdown, that’s why: (lang=auto; my incomplete snippet is detected as ruby) sonar-scanner … etc etc include=src/**,apps/**,include/**,gui/** -Dsonar=true… (lang=markdown) sonar-scanner … etc etc include=src/**,apps/**,inc…

But why would formatting ever be applied in a code block?

It’s just syntax highlighting your code, but with the wrong language after HighlightJS “auto-detected” it. Notice the same doesn’t happen here on Meta unless you explicitly start your code block with ```auto, because we have “Default code lang” set as text.

Unexpected formatting in triple-tick code blocks

Product Support

ganncamp (G Ann Campbell) March 6, 2025, 4:19pm 3

It’s auto

Topic		Replies	Views
Code blocks not working correctly? Bug	13	2190	December 11, 2017
Default code formatting language varies unexpectedly Bug	2	1656	February 13, 2018
Fenced code block is formatting part of it with italics Product Support	3	469	March 4, 2023
Fenced code block with lang hint breaks subsequent formatting Bug markdown-it-review	2	1366	December 9, 2016
Automatic highlighting fails for some fenced code blocks Bug fixed , bug	8	254	July 29, 2026

Unexpected formatting in triple-tick code blocks

Related topics