[Tex/LaTex] Line breaking of URLs in bibliographies

bibliographieshorizontal alignmentline-breakingurls

I have a problem with the line break of an URL. The URL can´t break correct and extends into the border. I´ve tried some things. Amongst others I loaded the package breakurl, but without any success. When I set the bibliography left-aligned there isn´t a problem. But I need it justified. Here is an example:

\documentclass[
a4paper,                         
fontsize=11,                    
BCOR=10mm,
DIV=11
]{scrreprt}

\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}                    
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}                
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}                        
\usepackage{microtype}    
\usepackage[
    style=numeric, 
    maxnames=1,
    bibencoding=latin1,
    backend=bibtex8,
    defernumbers=true,
    hyperref=true,
    alldates=long
]{biblatex}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage[hyphenbreaks]{breakurl}

\begin{filecontents}{bachelorarbeit_lit.bib}
@ONLINE{java96,
    author = {{Sun Microsystems}},
    title = {JavaSoft ships Java 1.0},
    year = {1996},
    month = {1},
    url = {http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1996_Jan_23/ai_17853565/?tag=content;col1},
    urldate = {2011-03-02},
    sortname = {Sun},
    keywords = {www}
}

@ONLINE{java02,
    author = {{Computer Weekly}},
    title = {Write once, run anywhere?},
    year = {2002},
    month = {5},
    url = {http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2002/05/02/186793/Write-once-runanywhere1.htm},
    urldate = {2011-03-02},
    sortname = {Computer},
    keywords = {www}
}
\end{filecontents}

\bibliography{bachelorarbeit_lit}

\begin{document}
\chapter{Test}
Test \cite{java02}
Test \cite{java96}

%\raggedright
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Does anyone have an idea?

Best Answer

The first URL has a large unbreakable section (runanywhere1) which must either form the end of the second or the beginning of the third line (given the specific font size, margin etc. of the example) if one insists on justified text. An acceptable (?) solution may be obtained by adding e.g. \sloppy or \emergencystretch 1.5em before \printbibliography. enter image description here

Note:

The showframe package was used to display the margins.
As Martin Scharrer pointed out is is best to use
```
\newcommand{\sourcefile}{\path}%  Better!!
```
or
```
\let\sourcefile\path%  Better!!
```
instead of
```
\newcommand{\sourcefile}[1]{\path{#1}}% Not so good
```
This will allow for the case where there any special characters in the file names as they will be processed in verbatim mode. So, for example, the following will work fine with the either of the "Better" labeled definitions above:
```
\sourcefile{~/.cshrc}
\sourcefile{abc%20def}
```

[Tex/LaTex] URLs in bibliography: LaTeX not breaking line as expected

The url package provides an interesting extra piece of flexibility, via the construct \Urlmuskip. This specifies the spacing around the breakable characters. By default it is 0mu however you can set it some glue specification:

\Urlmuskip=0mu plus 1mu

(Unfortunately the example in the url manual is wrong. It says \Urlmuskip=0pt plus 1mu. Being a mathematical skip expression the only units allowed are mu.)

Anyway in your example this gives:

Sample output

\documentclass[paper]{ieice}

\usepackage[hyphens]{url}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
\hypersetup{breaklinks=true}
\urlstyle{same}
\usepackage{cite}

\title{Test document}
\begin{document}

this\cite{upnp_spec} is a test\cite{android_javascriptinterface} \cite{Author:Title}

\Urlmuskip=0mu plus 1mu\relax
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{refs_min}

\end{document}

with an extra entry in your bib file.

Other things one might try to help in general include making the bibliography ragged right. The easiest way to this is just to write \raggedright before your \bibliography command. Better ragged right formatting is provided by the ragged2e package. Unfortunately your class defines the Center environment that clashes with the ragged2e, so in this case you would have to load it as follows:

\let\clsCenter\Center\let\clsendCenter\endCenter
\let\Center\undefined\let\endCenter\undefined
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\let\Center\clsCenter
\let\endCenter\clsendCenter

You could then issue \RaggedRight just before your \bibliography command. If there is text after the bibliography, you can turn on normal formatting again with the \justifying command.

Best Answer

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