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I'd like to have linebreaks within fields of a BibTeX entry that are preserved even after I format the entry with C-q. Currently, what happens in my BibTeX buffer is this. I produce an entry with a long annotation that includes a linebreak, like so:

@InCollection{Godfrey-Smith:induction, author = {Peter Godfrey-Smith}, title = {Induction, Samples, and Kinds}, booktitle = {Carving Nature at Its Joints}, publisher = {MIT Press}, year = {2011}, pages = {33--52}, address = {Cambridge, MA}, editors = {Joseph K. Campbell and Michael O'Rourke and Matthew H. Slater}, Annote = {Distinguishes two kinds of induction, one where all that matters is an appropriately random sample without any need for naturalness or causal connection, and another that only requires a causal connection, but where numbers don't matter. He argues (more controversially) that the picture we get from Goodman in {\em Fact, Fiction, Forecast} is a bad one because Goodman mixes the two up: naturalness is required just in order to rule out the bad predicates, but the induction still relies on having suitably large numbers.} }

Then I hit C-q to make the entry look nice, and I get this:

@InCollection{Godfrey-Smith:induction, author = {Peter Godfrey-Smith}, title = {Induction, Samples, and Kinds}, booktitle = {Carving Nature at Its Joints}, publisher = {MIT Press}, year = {2011}, pages = {33--52}, address = {Cambridge, MA}, editors = {Joseph K. Campbell and Michael O'Rourke and Matthew H. Slater}, Annote = {Distinguishes two kinds of induction, one where all that matters is an appropriately random sample without any need for naturalness or causal connection, and another that only requires a causal connection, but where numbers don't matter. He argues (more controversially) that the picture we get from Goodman in {\em Fact, Fiction, Forecast} is a bad one because Goodman mixes the two up: naturalness is required just in order to rule out the bad predicates, but the induction still relies on having suitably large numbers.} }

I'd like to figure out how I can force line-breaks that will be retained even after hitting C-q.

I've tried adding a percentage mark at the end of the line, which keeps the line break, but for purposes of readability, it'd be great to have a blank line between paragraphs in a bibTeX field, and I can't do that with the % commenting symbol.

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  • I add 52 dashes with C-5 C-2 -. :) Commented Dec 1, 2021 at 15:32

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You can try the following Elisp code. It handles fill-paragraph but not bibtex-fill-entry.

(defun my-bibtex-fill-field (&optional justify) "Like \\[fill-paragraph], but fill current BibTeX field. If optional prefix JUSTIFY is non-nil justify as well. In BibTeX mode this function is bound to `fill-paragraph-function'." (interactive "*P") (let ((pnt (point-marker)) (bounds (bibtex-enclosing-field t))) (save-restriction ;; See `bitex-start-of-field' and related for the structure of BOUNDS. (narrow-to-region (bibtex-start-of-text-in-field bounds) (bibtex-end-of-text-in-field bounds)) (let ((fill-paragraph-function t)) (goto-char (point-min)) (fill-paragraph justify) (while (eq (forward-paragraph) 0) (fill-paragraph justify))) ) (goto-char pnt))) (advice-add 'bibtex-fill-field :override #'my-bibtex-fill-field)

There is another version that also handles filling of entries. But, this has the disadvantage that there is no extra indent after the first newline in a field.

(defun fill-region-paragraphs (b e &optional justify) "Fill region between B and E like `fill-paragraph' for each paragraph. JUSTIFY when called with prefix arg." (interactive "r\nP") (goto-char b) (while (< (point) e) (fill-paragraph justify) (forward-paragraph) )) (defun my-bibtex-fill-field (&optional justify) "Like \\[fill-paragraph], but fill current BibTeX field. If optional prefix JUSTIFY is non-nil justify as well. In BibTeX mode this function is bound to `fill-paragraph-function'." (interactive "*P") (let ((pnt (point-marker)) (bounds (bibtex-enclosing-field t))) (save-restriction ;; See `bitex-start-of-field' and related for the structure of BOUNDS. (narrow-to-region (bibtex-start-of-text-in-field bounds) (bibtex-end-of-text-in-field bounds)) (let ((fill-paragraph-function t)) (goto-char (point-min)) (fill-paragraph justify) (while (eq (forward-paragraph) 0) (fill-paragraph justify))) ) (goto-char pnt))) (defun my-bibtex-fill-field-bounds (fun &rest args) "Fill like `bibtex-fill-field-bonds' but retain paragraphs in fields. Can be used as around advice with args FUN and ARGS for `bibtex-fill-field-bounds'." (cl-letf* ((old-fill-region-as-paragraph (symbol-function 'fill-region-as-paragraph)) ((symbol-function 'fill-region-as-paragraph) (lambda (from to &optional justify nosqueeze squeeze-after) ;; `fill-region-as-paragraph' is used in `fill-paragraph' ;; Thus, we need to roll-back our override for `fill-region-paragraphs'. (cl-letf (((symbol-function 'fill-region-as-paragraph) old-fill-region-as-paragraph) (fill-paragraph-function #'my-bibtex-fill-field)) (fill-region-paragraphs from to justify))))) (apply fun args))) (advice-add 'bibtex-fill-field-bounds :around #'my-bibtex-fill-field-bounds)
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