Rails simple_format and auto_link weirdness

Rails simple_format and auto_link.rb

# This does not appear to recognize the :target => "_blank" when the page is rendered
simple_format(auto_link(@task.description, :html => { :target => "_blank" }))

# However, this works fine
auto_link(simple_format(@task.description), :html => { :target => "_blank" })

I have the exact same issue

simple_format( link_to( ... ) ) also strips the target.

Same problem, but I found that doing this causes simple_format to preserve the target:

simple_format(some_anchor, {}, sanitize: false)

when some_anchor is a link that contains the 'target: "_blank"' attribute.

However, specifying

simple_format(link_to("foo", "http://example.com/"), html: { target: "_blank" }, sanitize: false)

still loses the 'target: "_blank"' attribute.