How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

[Ivanov Dmitry]

org-mode has the following format for links:

[[<file-name>::<text-to-search>][<link text>]]

What should I do, if <text-to-search> contains ']' symbol? Like this:

$form['input']

Re: How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

[Xiha]

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Hi Dmitry,

> org-mode has the following format for links:
>
> [[<file-name>::<text-to-search>][<link text>]]
>
> What should I do, if <text-to-search> contains ']' symbol? Like this:
>
> $form['input']

Not sure it helps in your case, but this

    * Heading containing [brackets]

    * Other heading

    Here is a link to [[Heading containing *%5B*brackets*%5D*][that
    first heading]].

works for me.

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Re: How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

[Ivanov Dmitry]

Hi, Xiha

Unfortunately URL encoding the [ and ] doesn't work for me. Try to
reproduce it. Create 2 files:

file.txt. Content:
--------------------------------
$form['text1']

$form['text2']
--------------------------------
file.org. Content:
--------------------------------
[[./file.txt::$form%5B'text2'%5D][text2]]
--------------------------------

When I click the link, it says "No match".

Re: How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

[Kyle Meyer]

Ivanov Dmitry <usr345@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, Xiha
>
> Unfortunately URL encoding the [ and ] doesn't work for me. Try to
> reproduce it. Create 2 files:
>
> file.txt. Content:
> --------------------------------
> $form['text1']
>
> $form['text2']
> --------------------------------
> file.org. Content:
> --------------------------------
> [[./file.txt::$form%5B'text2'%5D][text2]]
> --------------------------------
>
> When I click the link, it says "No match".

While the search string is escaped elsewhere in org-link-search using
regexp-quote, it is treated as a regular expression for normal text
search.  Try escaping with "\":

    [[./file.txt::$form\%5B'text2'\%5D]]

--
Kyle

Re: How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,

Ivanov Dmitry <usr345@gmail.com> writes:

> Unfortunately URL encoding the [ and ] doesn't work for me. Try to
> reproduce it. Create 2 files:
>
> file.txt. Content:
> --------------------------------
> $form['text1']
>
> $form['text2']
> --------------------------------
> file.org. Content:
> --------------------------------
> [[./file.txt::$form%5B'text2'%5D][text2]]
> --------------------------------
>
> When I click the link, it says "No match".

It works here on a recent Org.


Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou

Re: How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

[Ivanov Dmitry]

> It works here on a recent Org.

Thank you. I have a little outdated version. It started to work after
I used the escaped percent as Kyle Meyer suggested.

Re: How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

[Kyle Meyer]

Nicolas Goaziou <mail@nicolasgoaziou.fr> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Ivanov Dmitry <usr345@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Unfortunately URL encoding the [ and ] doesn't work for me. Try to
>> reproduce it. Create 2 files:
>>
>> file.txt. Content:
>> --------------------------------
>> $form['text1']
>>
>> $form['text2']
>> --------------------------------
>> file.org. Content:
>> --------------------------------
>> [[./file.txt::$form%5B'text2'%5D][text2]]
>> --------------------------------
>>
>> When I click the link, it says "No match".
>
> It works here on a recent Org.

Hmm, that's weird.  I'm still seeing this with emacs -Q using
release_8.3beta-1312-g8094d0.

--
Kyle

Re: How to escape "[" and "]" characters in org-mode links

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,

Kyle Meyer <kyle@kyleam.com> writes:

> Hmm, that's weird.  I'm still seeing this with emacs -Q using
> release_8.3beta-1312-g8094d0.

Indeed, my bad. This should be fixed in cfe5bc9.

However, the current escaping mechanism for links in Org is not really
satisfactory. In the long run, we will need to change it.


Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou