[BUG] Lombok Annotation Processor incorrectly alters AST node positions for original code

[amishra-u]

Describe the bug
Lombok, when copying annotations from fields to their corresponding accessor methods, does not perform a deep clone of these annotations. As a result, it alters the position of nodes in the original AST. Any tool relying on the accuracy of node positions in the AST may fail. For example, OpenRewrite, a large-scale code refactoring tool that depends on precise node positioning, encountered issues while processing Lombok-annotated code due to discrepancies between the source file and AST node positions.

For more details, please see this comment:
openrewrite/rewrite#4781 (comment)

To Reproduce

import lombok.Getter;
import lombok.Nonnull;

@Getter
public class Foo {
  @Nonnull private final String foo;
}

In this example, the position of the @Nonnull annotation shifts from its original location to the location of String foo. When Lombok generates the getter method and copies the @nonnull annotation, it erroneously updates the positions of the original @nonnull node due to a shallow copy operation.

Expected behavior
Lombok’s annotation processor should avoid altering the AST node positions of original code.

[Rawi01]

@amishra-u Assigned the issue to you because I noticed that you started to work on it

[timtebeek]

Linking the branch that saw changes here for others interested: master...amishra-u:lombok:ast-pos