Bug: Enter bug title here

Including BackslashAtEndOfLine here since he identified the bug.

Question

I'm trying to include shell code snippets in verbatim mode which have lines ending in backslash characters. Currently TWiki does this in getRenderedVersion

    $text =~ s/\\\n//go;  # Join lines ending in "\"

which makes things difficult. I could follow the backslash with a space to fool the regexp, but this means that anyone attempting to cut and paste from the page (which is what I want) will end up with spaces after the backslashes, which causes no end of trouble for the shell. I tried appending a <nop> after the backslash, but getRenderedVersion strips off things like that:

    $result =~ s|\n?\n$||os; # clean up clutch

If I insert an html <br> tag I get extra space between the lines, which again foils a cut and paste.

I've looked at the code, but can't figure a way around this. Any suggestions?

Thanks .

• TWiki version: 20011201
• Web server:
• Server OS:
• Web browser:
• Client OS:

-- DiabJerius - 05 Aug 2002

Answer

Wrap your example in the <verbatim> and </verbatim> tags. They suppress TWiki's processing of text. E.G.

This line has a \
at the end of it.

It won't let you do inline text, but for cut and paste you don't want inline usage.

Can't believe I suggested this when I had already submitted a ticket that this didn't work 8-)._ rouilj 8/11/02

-- JohnRouillard - 05 Aug 2002

Bizarre. Your example, when viewed, exhibits the problem. When previewed, it doesn't. I don't quite understand why, as preview uses getRenderedVersion.

The code which strips out the backslash in getRenderedVersion does so before performing special processing of the <verbatim> tag, so <verbatim> isn't quite as pure as it should be.

-- DiabJerius - 05 Aug 2002

I just tried your example on my system, and I don't see the disparity between previewing and viewing the topic. Does twiki.org run on the alpha release?

-- DiabJerius - 05 Aug 2002

I just took a gander at the version in CVS, and I can now explain the preview/view disparity.

• TWiki::getRenderedVersion() calls TWiki::takeOutVerbatim() after joining the lines.
• preview calls TWiki::takeOutVerbatim() before calling TWiki::getRenderedVersion(), effectively isolating the verbatim text in spite of TWiki::getRenderedVersion().
• view does not call TWiki::takeOutVerbatim() before calling TWiki::getRenderedVersion(), so the verbatim text is still subject to line joining.

So, either view should also call TWiki::takeOutVerbatim() or TWiki::getRenderedVersion() should call it before joining the lines.

-- DiabJerius - 05 Aug 2002

This is fix now, see Codev.VerbatimGobblesBackslashAtEndOfLine

Get the latest TWikiAlphaRelease, or in sub getRenderedVersion of twiki/lib/TWiki.pm move the following lines a few lines down just below the call to takeOutVerbatim( $text, \@verbatim ) :

$text =~ s/\\\n//go;  # Join lines ending in "\"

-- PeterThoeny - 10 Aug 2002

Unfortunately, that fix doesn't work for the Codev.TWikiRelease01Dec2001 because the sub takeOutVerbatim isn't in the codebase yet for that release.

An (admittedly hacky) workaround for Codev.TWikiRelease01Dec2001 users is to put a backslash-space at the end of the verbatim line instead of a backslash. While this is clearly not a perfect solution, it does render to something that looks right. This should more-or-less work unless the rendering is then copied-and-pasted into some piece of code that subsequently breaks. Watch out for this!

-- FrankHorowitz - 28 Nov 2002

I had a problem with this when putting a directory at the end of a bullet list. e.g.

• item 1
• item 2 with trailing backslash * item 3
• item 4 with trialing backslash and space\
• item 5

What purpose is this for other than to allow joining lines in tables? Could it be limited to just that function?

-- SamHasler - 04 Mar 2004

Test case

BackslashAtEndOfLine

Environment

-- JohnRouillard - 08 Aug 2002

Follow up

Fix record

This is fixed, in TWikiAlphaRelease and TWiki.org.

• Removed the verbatim handling in preview since it is redundant. So view and preview behave now identical
• Backslash inside verbatim is now supported.

-- PeterThoeny - 10 Aug 2002