diff --git a/tests/auto/testlib/selftests/generate_expected_output.py b/tests/auto/testlib/selftests/generate_expected_output.py
index bf1e808e22..3212bcda2e 100755
--- a/tests/auto/testlib/selftests/generate_expected_output.py
+++ b/tests/auto/testlib/selftests/generate_expected_output.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ isWindows = sys.platform == 'win32'
replacements = [
(qtver, r'@INSERT_QT_VERSION_HERE@'),
(rootPath.encode('unicode-escape').decode('utf-8'), r''),
- (r'', r''),
+ (r'( *)', r'\1'),
]
extraArgs = {