XeLaTeX href fails if accents in the link

Question

This piece of code should create a document with a link to https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignement_en_mémoire

Instead of that the link goes to https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignement_en_mÃ©moire

Why is that? How to solve the problem?

Edited : The percent encoding gives a working link but indent-region in emacs (on OS X) gives now false indentation and the log file is showing a problem.

% Pour XeTeX
\XeTeXdefaultencoding utf-8
\documentclass[10pt,svgnames]{beamer}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{french}
\usepackage{csquotes} % gestion des guillemets (pas sûr que cela reste indispensable avec polyglossia)
\definecolor{links}{HTML}{2A1B81}
\hypersetup{colorlinks,linkcolor=,urlcolor=links}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
  \begin{itemize}
  \item Pour des raisons d'\href{https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignement_en_mémoire}{alignement
      en mémoire}, le format BMP a recours au padding.
\item Pour des raisons d'\href{https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignement_en_m%C3%A9moire}{alignement en mémoire}, le format BMP a recours au padding.
    \end{itemize}
  \end{frame}
\end{document}

The beginning and the end of the log file:

This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.999991 (TeX Live 2019) (preloaded format=xelatex 2020.2.18)  19 JUN 2020 09:32
entering extended mode
 restricted \write18 enabled.
 file:line:error style messages enabled.
 %&-line parsing enabled.
**test.tex
(./test.tex
LaTeX2e <2020-02-02> patch level 2
L3 programming layer <2020-02-14>
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer/beamer.cls
Document Class: beamer 2019/09/29 v3.57 A class for typesetting presentations
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer/beamerbasemodes.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/etoolbox/etoolbox.sty
Package: etoolbox 2019/09/21 v2.5h e-TeX tools for LaTeX (JAW)
\etb@tempcnta=\count163
)
\beamer@tempbox=\box45
\beamer@tempcount=\count164
\c@beamerpauses=\count165
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/beamer/beamerbasedecode.sty
\beamer@slideinframe=\count166
\beamer@minimum=\count167
\beamer@decode@box=\box46
)
\beamer@commentbox=\box47
\beamer@modecount=\count168
)
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/generic/iftex/ifpdf.sty
Package: ifpdf 2019/10/25 v3.4 ifpdf legacy package. Use iftex instead.
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/generic/iftex/iftex.sty
Package: iftex 2019/11/07 v1.0c TeX engine tests
))

(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/translator/translator-basic-dicti
onary-English.dict
Dictionary: translator-basic-dictionary, Language: English 
)
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/translator/translator-bibliograph
y-dictionary-English.dict
Dictionary: translator-bibliography-dictionary, Language: English 
)
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/translator/translator-environment
-dictionary-English.dict
Dictionary: translator-environment-dictionary, Language: English 
)
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/translator/translator-months-dict
ionary-English.dict
Dictionary: translator-months-dictionary, Language: English 
)
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/translator/translator-numbers-dic
tionary-English.dict
Dictionary: translator-numbers-dictionary, Language: English 
)
(/usr/local/texlive/2019/texmf-dist/tex/latex/translator/translator-theorem-dic
tionary-English.dict
Dictionary: translator-theorem-dictionary, Language: English 
)
Package fontspec Info: Adjusting the maths setup (use [no-math] to avoid
(fontspec)             this).
\symlegacymaths=\mathgroup8
LaTeX Font Info:    Overwriting symbol font legacymaths' in versionbold'
(Font)                  OT1/cmr/m/n --> OT1/cmr/bx/n on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \acute on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \grave on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \ddot on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \tilde on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \bar on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \breve on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \check on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \hat on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \dot on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math accent \mathring on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Gamma on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Delta on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Theta on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Lambda on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Xi on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Pi on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Sigma on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Upsilon on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Phi on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Psi on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \Omega on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring math symbol \mathdollar on input line 12.
LaTeX Font Info:    Redeclaring symbol font operators' on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: EncodingOT1' has changed to TU' for symbol font (Font)operators' in the math version normal' on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting symbol fontoperators' in version normal' (Font) OT1/cmss/m/n --&gt; TU/lmr/m/n on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: EncodingOT1' has changed to TU' for symbol font (Font)operators' in the math version bold' on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting symbol fontoperators' in version bold' (Font) OT1/cmss/b/n --&gt; TU/lmr/m/n on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting symbol fontoperators' in version normal' (Font) TU/lmr/m/n --&gt; TU/lmr/m/n on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Redeclaring math alphabet \mathrm on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting math alphabet\mathit' in version normal' (Font) TU/lmss/m/it --&gt; TU/lmr/m/it on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting math alphabet\mathbf' in version normal' (Font) TU/lmss/b/n --&gt; TU/lmr/b/n on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting math alphabet\mathsf' in version normal' (Font) TU/lmss/m/n --&gt; TU/lmss/m/n on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting math alphabet\mathtt' in version normal' (Font) TU/lmtt/m/n --&gt; TU/lmtt/m/n on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting symbol fontoperators' in version bold' (Font) TU/lmr/m/n --&gt; TU/lmr/b/n on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting math alphabet\mathit' in version bold' (Font) TU/lmss/b/it --&gt; TU/lmr/b/it on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting math alphabet\mathsf' in version bold' (Font) TU/lmss/b/n --&gt; TU/lmss/b/n on input line 12. LaTeX Font Info: Overwriting math alphabet\mathtt' in version `bold'
(Font)                  TU/lmtt/b/n --> TU/lmtt/b/n on input line 12.
LaTeX Info: Redefining \rmfamily on input line 12.
LaTeX Info: Redefining \sffamily on input line 12.
LaTeX Info: Redefining \ttfamily on input line 12.
 (./test.nav))
Runaway argument?
\begin {itemize} \item Pour des raisons d'\href {https://fr.wikipedia\ETC.
! File ended while scanning use of \frame.
<inserted text> 
                \par 
<*> test.tex
I suspect you have forgotten a }', causing me to read past where you wanted me to stop. I'll try to recover; but if the error is serious, you'd better typeE' or `X' now and fix your file.
! Emergency stop.
<*> test.tex
*** (job aborted, no legal \end found)
Here is how much of TeX's memory you used:
 24768 strings out of 479819
 500728 string characters out of 5893613
 811726 words of memory out of 5000000
 41412 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+600000
 532730 words of font info for 29 fonts, out of 8000000 for 9000
 1348 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191
 58i,4n,67p,792b,289s stack positions out of 5000i,500n,10000p,200000b,80000s
No pages of output.

Related: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/132700. Short answer: use percent encoding \href{https://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Alignement_en_m%C3%A9moire}{...}. — muzimuzhi Z, Jun 18 '20 at 22:06
I can reproduce your problem with xelatex/lualatex and pdf reader Skim or TeXstudio's internal pdf viewer on macOS, but Adobe Reader works ok. I also checked the url stored in pdf, it is {'/S': '/URI', '/URI': 'https://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Alignement_en_mÃ©moire'}. So the stored url is probably wrong. — muzimuzhi Z, Jun 18 '20 at 22:09
I can't reproduce the problem in xelatex on Windows: All of Acrobat Reader DC, SumatraPDF, TeXstudio, TeXworks show correct accent in the link. — Akira Kakuto, Jun 18 '20 at 22:34
I can find the correct /A<</S/URI/URI(https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignement_en_mémoire)>> in both of xdv and pdf. — Akira Kakuto, Jun 18 '20 at 23:22
@muzimuzhiZ I get the correct URI(https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignement_en_m\303\251moire). Is your tex system up-to-date? — Ulrike Fischer, Jun 19 '20 at 09:12
You get the error from the percent encoding as \href can't change the catcode in a beamer frame. You should use \begin{frame}[fragile]. — Ulrike Fischer, Jun 19 '20 at 13:17
@Ulrike Fischer \begin{frame}[fragile] doesn't solve the indentation problem with indent-region in emacs. Also what's follow the first percent is considered as a comment. So I need to add the backslashs. — Raoul HATTERER, Jun 20 '20 at 10:09

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 19 '20 at 13:06

There might be some bug in macOS.

% url-test.tex
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\href{https://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Alignement_en_mémoire}{alignement en mémoire}
\end{document}

Run the above example with

xelatex -no-pdf url-test.tex
dviasm url-test.xdv > url-test.dviasm
xdvipdfmx -C 0x40 url-test.xdv

then

the .dviasm file contains URI(https://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Alignement_en_mémoire), and
the .pdf file contains URI(https://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Alignement_en_m\303\251moire).

Both are right.

If I click the url in TeXstudio's internal pdf viewer or Skim.app, then both of them open https://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Alignement_en_m%EF%BF%BDmoire, which is wrong. Adobe Reader opens the right url, however.

I am on macOS 10.15.5, with texlive 2020 and latest latex packages.

yes, that is quite probable. There are known problems with mac os handling of certain links. — Ulrike Fischer, Jun 19 '20 at 13:14
@UlrikeFischer And I can remember this issue, which shows macOS (probably the PDFKit module) wrongly converts the reserved character # to percent encoding. — muzimuzhi Z, Jun 19 '20 at 14:26

Raoul HATTERER · Answer 2 · 2020-06-19T08:47:47.860

0

The percent coding solve the problem without additional errors if we escape the percentage symbols with a backslash.

% Pour XeTeX
\XeTeXdefaultencoding utf-8
\documentclass[10pt,svgnames]{beamer}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{french}
\usepackage{csquotes} % gestion des guillemets (pas sûr que cela reste indispensable avec polyglossia)
\definecolor{links}{HTML}{2A1B81}
\hypersetup{colorlinks,linkcolor=,urlcolor=links}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
  \begin{itemize}
  \item Pour des raisons d'\href{https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignement_en_mémoire}{alignement
      en mémoire}, le format BMP a recours au padding.
\item Pour des raisons d'\href{https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignement_en_m%C3%A9moire}{alignement en mémoire}, le format BMP a recours au padding.
  \end{itemize}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

So the procedure is to copy the address from firefox to get the percent encoding and then add backslashs.

edited Jun 19 '20 at 08:47

answered Jun 19 '20 at 08:39

Raoul HATTERER

211

Percent encoding is certainly one way to resolve it. But it should also work without it. Can you show your log-file? – Ulrike Fischer Jun 19 '20 at 09:13
I tested by XeTeX 0.999992 (TeX Live 2020). Raoul HATTERER is using XeTeX 0.999991 (TeX Live 2019). I don't know but there may be differences in the engine or/and packages. – Akira Kakuto Jun 19 '20 at 09:30
@AkiraKakuto I tried on texlive 2019 and it worked fine too. Imho muzimuzhi is right and it is a mac os problem, its pdf viewer is faulty in various places. – Ulrike Fischer Jun 19 '20 at 13:16
@AkiraKakuto not related to this question, but if you have some time, could you look here https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/550325/2388? – Ulrike Fischer Jun 20 '20 at 20:40

XeLaTeX href fails if accents in the link

2 Answers2