[Tex/LaTex] File ended wile scanning use of \harvardurl. \bibliography{thesis_references}

compilation errorpreamble

I have compilation errors in my document which seem to be very similar to this question. The error message:

"File ended wile scanning use of \harvardurl. \bibliography{thesis_references}

The problem is with my preamble – might be conflicting packages. The full preamble is getting quite chunky now but these are the components which I think are relevant to the problem:

\usepackage{url}
\usepackage{hyperref}

%% use harvard style referencing
\bibliographystyle{agsm}

%% redefine uarvardurl command as in texexchange anwer
\renewcommand{\harvardurl}[1]{\textbf{URL:} \url{#1}}

\begin{document}
    \bibliography{thesis_references}
\end{document}

The problem doesn't occur if I delete my bbl file and change the referencing style to abbrvnat. Any ideas what's going on?

Best Answer

It is hard to say without seeing the bib file and the used packages, but it looks like there are special characters in a URL, most likely a %.

You probably use the natbib package instead of harvard. Then you can fix this by allowing \url to change the catcodes while reading it's argument. Just change your \harvardurl command to

\renewcommand{\harvardurl}{\textbf{URL:} \url}

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[Tex/LaTex] Separating the preamble to another file

My opinion mostly:

Preamble commands that add functionality to the document (e.g., defining macros) belong in a package (.sty file).

Preamble commands that define the look of the document (paper geometry, page headers, font selections), belong in a custom document class (.cls file). You can use high-level LaTeX commands to derive a custom class from a standard-issue class, and pass options to it.

See Style/class tutorials for examples of both.

Update 2022-03-27 User @tush asked for a reference. The closest I could find is LaTex2e for class and package writers by the LaTeX project team. They write:

2.3 Is it a class or a package?

The first thing to do when you want to put some new LaTeX commands in a file is to decide whether it should be a document class or a package. The rule of thumb is:

If the commands could be used with any document class, then make them a package; and if not, then make them a class.

There are two major types of class: those like article, report or letter, which are free-standing; and those which are extensions or variations of other classes—for example, the proc document class, which is built on the article document class. Thus, a company might have a local ownlet class for printing letters with their own headed note-paper. Such a class would build on top of the existing letter class but it cannot be used with any other document class, so we have ownlet.cls rather than ownlet.sty.

The graphics package, in contrast, provides commands for including images into a LaTeX document. Since these commands can be used with any document class, we have graphics.sty rather than graphics.cls.

Commands that set the document's look like paper geometry, page headers, font selections, seem closer to the ownlet case than to the graphics case. That's why I think they belong in a class rather than a package.

[Tex/LaTex] Place preamble packages in a different tex file

I suggest you

Place all preamble instructions -- other than the \documentclass instruction, of course -- in a separate file, to be called (say) sharina.sty. (Note the filename extension). Save the file in the directory where your main tex file is located.
Place the single instruction
```
\usepackage{sharina}
```
in the preamble of your tex file. Observe: No filename extension.

With this change, the document preamble should consist of only the following two lines:
```
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,twoside]{report}
\usepackage{sharina}
```

Then, do please take the time to clean up and simplify the instructions contained in the file sharina.sty.

Best Answer

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[Tex/LaTex] Separating the preamble to another file

[Tex/LaTex] Place preamble packages in a different tex file

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