[Tex/LaTex] Line breaks of long URLs in biblatex bibliography

biblatexurls

I have some long URLs which doesn't contain special "line break characters" like "-" or "/". How can I automatically break these URLs?

\documentclass{scrreprt}

\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}                    
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}                
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
\usepackage{url}
\usepackage{dingbat}  % for \carriagereturn symbol
\makeatletter
\g@addto@macro{\UrlBreaks}{\UrlOrds}
\g@addto@macro{\UrlBreaks}{%
\do\/\do\d%
}
\makeatother

\begin{filecontents}{bachelorarbeit_lit.bib}
@ONLINE{java96,
    author = {{Joe Black}},
    title = {Foobar 1.0},
    year = {1996},
    month = {1},
    url = {http://www.aaa.bb.cccc.dh/uploads/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd.pdf},
    urldate = {2011-03-02},
    sortname = {Sun},
    keywords = {www}
}
\end{filecontents}

\bibliography{bachelorarbeit_lit}

\begin{document}
Test \cite{java96}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

edit

I don't know why but it still doesn't work. Is there an option to automatically break long URLs. I don't care where the break is but it should be done automatically. Even if I manually specify the "breaking character" it doesn't work (as the example shows).

Best Answer

Hacking \UrlBreaks is not needed for \url inside the bibliography of biblatex. Package biblatex uses \biburlsetup and has already added lots of characters. The breaking at some character classes is controlled by counters. From the documentation of biblatex, "4.10.3 User-definable Lengths and Counters":

biburlnumpenalty: If this counter is set to a value greater than zero, biblatex will permit linebreaks after numbers in all strings formatted with the \url command from the url package. This will affect URLs and DOIs in the bibliography. The breakpoints will be penalized by the value of this counter. If URLs and/or DOIs in the bibliography run into the margin, try setting this counter to a value greater than zero but less than 10000 (you normally want to use a high value like 9000). Setting the counter to zero disables this feature. This is the default setting.

biburlucpenalty: Similar to biburlnumpenalty, except that it will add a breakpoint after all uppercase letters.

biburllcpenalty: Similar to biburlnumpenalty, except that it will add a breakpoint after all lowercase letters.

An example:

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{bachelorarbeit_lit.bib}
@ONLINE{java96,
    author = {{Joe Black}},
    title = {Foobar 1.0},
    year = {1996},
    month = {1},
    url = {http://www.aaa.bb.cccc.dh/uploads/dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd.pdf},
    urldate = {2011-03-02},
    sortname = {Sun},
    keywords = {www}
}
\end{filecontents}

\documentclass{scrreprt}

\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}                    
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}                
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex}
\usepackage{url}

%%% --- The following two lines are what needs to be added --- %%%
\setcounter{biburllcpenalty}{7000}
\setcounter{biburlucpenalty}{8000}

\bibliography{bachelorarbeit_lit}

\begin{document}
Test \cite{java96}
\printbibliography
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] URL line breaks with biblatex

Answers to the question linked in domwass's comment mention the package url. This package is already loaded by biblatex. It is configured with the command \biburlsetup defined in biblatex.def.

URLs are broken at the set of characters specified in \UrlBreaks, \UrlBigBreaks and \UrlSpecials. \UrlBigBreaks will prevent breaks from occurring between repeating characters (e.g. -- and :: in the code below). \UrlSpecials handles breaks at characters that may not be present in the document font.

Upgrading to the latest version of biblatex should solve your problem as \biburlsetup was expanded in version 1.4c to permit breakpoints at many different characters. For reference here is the definition for \biburlsetup from version 1.7:

\newcounter{biburlnumpenalty}
\newcounter{biburlucpenalty}
\newcounter{biburllcpenalty}

\newcommand*{\biburlsetup}{%
  \Urlmuskip=0mu plus 3mu\relax
  \mathchardef\UrlBigBreakPenalty=100\relax
  \mathchardef\UrlBreakPenalty=200\relax
  \def\UrlBigBreaks{\do\:\do\-}%
  \def\UrlBreaks{%
    \do\.\do\@\do\/\do\\\do\!\do\_\do\|\do\;\do\>\do\]\do\)\do\}%
    \do\,\do\?\do\'\do\+\do\=\do\#\do\$\do\&\do\*\do\^\do\"}%
  \ifnumgreater{\value{biburlnumpenalty}}{0}
    {\def\do##1{\appto\UrlSpecials{\do##1{\mathchar`##1 \penalty\value{biburlnumpenalty}}}}%
     \do\1\do\2\do\3\do\4\do\5\do\6\do\7\do\8\do\9\do\0}
    {}%
  \ifnumgreater{\value{biburlucpenalty}}{0}
    {\def\do##1{\appto\UrlSpecials{\do##1{\mathchar`##1 \penalty\value{biburlucpenalty}}}}%
     \do\A\do\B\do\C\do\D\do\E\do\F\do\G\do\H\do\I\do\J
     \do\K\do\L\do\M\do\N\do\O\do\P\do\Q\do\R\do\S\do\T
     \do\U\do\V\do\W\do\X\do\Y\do\Z}
    {}%
  \ifnumgreater{\value{biburllcpenalty}}{0}
    {\def\do##1{\appto\UrlSpecials{\do##1{\mathchar`##1 \penalty\value{biburllcpenalty}}}}%
     \do\a\do\b\do\c\do\d\do\e\do\f\do\g\do\h\do\i\do\j
     \do\k\do\l\do\m\do\n\do\o\do\p\do\q\do\r\do\s\do\t
     \do\u\do\v\do\w\do\x\do\y\do\z}
    {}%
  \let\do=\noexpand}

Unlike versions 1.4c to 1.6, this new definition no longer allows breakpoints at numbers, uppercase letters and lowercase letters by default. Breaks at these characters can be permitted by setting the penalty counters to a value between 0 and 10000, exclusive. For example:

\setcounter{biburlnumpenalty}{100}
\setcounter{biburlucpenalty}{100}
\setcounter{biburllcpenalty}{100}

The penalties can be reset locally using the command \defcounter from the etoolbox package (also loaded by biblatex). For example:

\defcounter{biburlnumpenalty}{3000}
\defcounter{biburlucpenalty}{6000}
\defcounter{biburllcpenalty}{9000}

To use this new setup with an older version of biblatex, just put the code defining \biburlsetup and its penalty counters in your preamble and replace \newcommand with \renewcommand.

[Tex/LaTex] Line overflow with long filenames and urls

You can use the url package:

\usepackage{url}
\newcommand{\sourcefile}{\url}

Using the above, and applying \url{} to the URL yields:

enter image description here

Alternatively, you could use the `hyperref package:

\usepackage{hyperref}
\newcommand{\sourcefile}{\url}

and get click-able links:

enter image description here

If the document is strictly for online viewing you could also use

\href{http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/auth-pg-hba-conf.html}{auth pg hba conf}

and get links with text that does not show the entire URL but whatever text you specify as the second parameter.

enter image description here

As egreg points out, if you don't want click able links on the files, you could use \path{} for the \sourcefiles and use \url for the web links

\usepackage{hyperref}
\newcommand{\sourcefile}{\path}

enter image description here

With the url package, you could also define different macros, and each can have it own style:

\DeclareUrlCommand\email{\urlstyle{rm}} 
\DeclareUrlCommand\directory{\urlstyle{tt}}

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}
```

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] URL line breaks with biblatex

[Tex/LaTex] Line overflow with long filenames and urls

Note:

Related Question