Consider the Java interface public interface IndentDefaultInterfaceMethod { String doSomething(Foo foo); // The"default" in the next line is *not* a case tag... default String doSomething() { return doSomething(Foo.getDefaultFoo()); } } // IndentDefaultInterfaceMethod Syntactic analysis of the "default" line declares it a case-label. As a result it gets indented to align with the "public" modifier. Instead it should (probably) be treated the same as an access modifier. But boy howdy is that code in c-guess-basic-syntax complicated! In GNU Emacs 24.5.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.16.6) of 2015-09-17 on lgw01-52, modified by Debian Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11702000 System Description: Ubuntu 15.10 Configured using: `configure --build x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes --enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs24:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/24.5/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/24.5/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp --build x86_64-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes --enable-locallisppath=/etc/emacs24:/etc/emacs:/usr/local/share/emacs/24.5/site-lisp:/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/24.5/site-lisp:/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp --with-x=yes --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 --with-toolkit-scroll-bars 'CFLAGS=-g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wall' CPPFLAGS=-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,-Bsymbolic-functions -Wl,-z,relro'' Important settings: value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 value of $XMODIFIERS: @im=ibus locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix Major mode: Java/l Minor modes in effect: shell-dirtrack-mode: t tooltip-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t abbrev-mode: t Recent messages: Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50scala-mode-el.el (source)... Loading scala-mode-auto...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50scala-mode-el.el (source)...done Loading /etc/emacs/site-start.d/50w3m-el.el (source)...done For information about GNU Emacs and the GNU system, type C-h C-a. Followed link to /home/slanning/Projects/stash/users/slanning/homedir/.emacs.d/java/Foo.java Syntactic analysis: ((case-label 1262)) Quit Undo! Making completion list... [2 times] Load-path shadows: /usr/share/emacs/24.5/site-lisp/debian-startup hides /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/debian-startup /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/md4 hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/md4 /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/hex-util hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/hex-util /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/sasl hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/net/sasl /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/hmac-md5 hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/net/hmac-md5 /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/sasl-cram hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/net/sasl-cram /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/ntlm hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/net/ntlm /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/sasl-ntlm hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/net/sasl-ntlm /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/hmac-def hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/net/hmac-def /usr/share/emacs24/site-lisp/flim/sasl-digest hides /usr/share/emacs/24.5/lisp/net/sasl-digest Features: (shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils help-mode vc-git cc-langs cl-loaddefs cl-lib cc-mode cc-fonts cc-guess cc-menus cc-cmds cc-styles cc-align cc-engine w3m-load scala-mode-auto 50magit go-mode-autoloads ido ess-toolbar ess-mouse mouseme thingatpt browse-url ess-menu ess-swv ess-noweb ess-noweb-font-lock-mode ess-bugs-l essd-els ess-sas-d ess-sas-l ess-sas-a shell pcomplete ess-sta-d ess-sta-l cc-vars cc-defs make-regexp ess-sp6-d ess-sp3-d ess-julia ess-r-d ess-r-completion compile ess-tracebug format-spec ess-roxy advice hideshow ess-help ess-developer eldoc help-fns ess-s-l ess ess-inf comint ansi-color ring ess-mode ess-noweb-mode ess-utils ess-custom executable easymenu ess-compat ess-site erlang-start jabber-autoloads emacs-goodies-el emacs-goodies-custom emacs-goodies-loaddefs easy-mmode dash-functional dash time-date tooltip electric uniquify ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image regexp-opt fringe tabulated-list newcomment lisp-mode prog-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer nadvice loaddefs button faces cus-face macroexp files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process dbusbind gfilenotify dynamic-setting system-font-setting font-render-setting move-toolbar gtk x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs) Memory information: ((conses 16 147268 7824) (symbols 48 25745 0) (miscs 40 103 170) (strings 32 32303 5207) (string-bytes 1 1065250) (vectors 16 16436) (vector-slots 8 462748 5639) (floats 8 107 279) (intervals 56 813 93) (buffers 960 15) (heap 1024 45539 1054))