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How do I remove an existing hyperlink without having to wade in and manually delete a bunch of brackets? When I try to org-insert-link and just delete the existing link, I get Lisp error: (error "Empty link").
I want to remove the link and preserve the text (i.e. the description).
The following elisp function will take a link around the current point as recognised by org-bracket-link-regexp, so either [[Link][Description]] or [[Link]], and replace it by Description in the first case or Link in the second case.
New version: for org 9.3 or newer (also added save-excursion as in the answer of @Chris)
(defun afs/org-replace-link-by-link-description ()
"Replace an org link by its description or if empty its address"
(interactive)
(if (org-in-regexp org-link-bracket-re 1)
(save-excursion
(let ((remove (list (match-beginning 0) (match-end 0)))
(description
(if (match-end 2)
(org-match-string-no-properties 2)
(org-match-string-no-properties 1))))
(apply 'delete-region remove)
(insert description)))))
Alternatively the following elisp function will do such a replacement on all links in the buffer or region:
(defun afs/org-replace-all-links-by-description (&optional start end)
"Find all org links and replace by their descriptions."
(interactive
(if (use-region-p) (list (region-beginning) (region-end))
(list (point-min) (point-max))))
(save-excursion
(save-restriction
(narrow-to-region start end)
(goto-char (point-min))
(while (re-search-forward org-link-bracket-re nil t)
(replace-match (match-string-no-properties
(if (match-end 2) 2 1)))))))
The above is for org 9.4, where org-match-string-no-properities has been obseleted in favour of match-string-no-properties.
Old version: before org 9.3
(defun afs/org-replace-link-by-link-description ()
"Replace an org link by its description or if empty its address"
(interactive)
(if (org-in-regexp org-bracket-link-regexp 1)
(let ((remove (list (match-beginning 0) (match-end 0)))
(description (if (match-end 3)
(org-match-string-no-properties 3)
(org-match-string-no-properties 1))))
(apply 'delete-region remove)
(insert description))))
In org version 9.3 org-bracket-link-regexp was obsoleted, but aliased to the new org-link-bracket-re. The new regexp is documented in ol.el as
org-link-bracket-re
(rx (seq "[["
;; URI part: match group 1.
(group
(one-or-more
(or (not (any "[]\\"))
(and "\\" (zero-or-more "\\\\") (any "[]"))
(and (one-or-more "\\") (not (any "[]"))))))
"]"
;; Description (optional): match group 2.
(opt "[" (group (+? anything)) "]")
"]"))
so the second group now matches the description of the link if present.
[[LINK]] format org links too. I learned about match-beginning and match-end from your answer.
Apr 16, 2015 at 14:09
3 to 2 in @Andrew Swan answer. I am assuming the current version of regexp search returns only 2 matches: the link and the description. Maybe this change happened through numerous upgrades of org-mode since 2015. I am running Org mode 9.3.7 on GNU Emacs 27.1. With that change, it works perfectly!
Sep 19, 2020 at 16:17
I tried to add this to the answer from @Andrew, but it was too long for a comment...
I really liked his solution, except that it moved the cursor. (Technically I guess it moved the point. Anyway...) Fortunately, it was easy to add save-excursion to avoid that:
(defun afs/org-replace-link-by-link-description ()
"Replace an org link by its description or if empty its address"
(interactive)
(if (org-in-regexp org-bracket-link-regexp 1)
(save-excursion
(let ((remove (list (match-beginning 0) (match-end 0)))
(description (if (match-end 3)
(org-match-string-no-properties 3)
(org-match-string-no-properties 1))))
(apply 'delete-region remove)
(insert description)))))
There is a solution which avoids using custom parsing with regexes and directly uses the built-in org-element API:
(defun org-link-delete-link ()
"Remove the link part of an org-mode link at point and keep
only the description"
(interactive)
(let ((elem (org-element-context)))
(if (eq (car elem) 'link)
(let* ((content-begin (org-element-property :contents-begin elem))
(content-end (org-element-property :contents-end elem))
(link-begin (org-element-property :begin elem))
(link-end (org-element-property :end elem)))
(if (and content-begin content-end)
(let ((content (buffer-substring-no-properties content-begin content-end)))
(delete-region link-begin link-end)
(insert content)))))))
(org-element-property :post-blank elem) you can get the number of trailing spaces after the link. Then you could choose to "reinsert" them when you replace the element.
Oct 15, 2021 at 1:38
The quickest may be to place the cursor before the link, then type C-M-space (mark-sexp), which will mark the entire link. Then delete it by typing a backspace (if you use delete-selection-mode) or C-w.
]] stay around after deleting the selection. This sometimes works in the same document at the same link and sometimes it doesn't. When I org-toggle-link-display after selection, sometimes the whole link is selected, sometimes only the caption text. Also with the expand-region package, sometimes if have to execute er/expand-region 4 times until text outside the link is selected, sometimes only to times even though I follow exactly the same steps beginning with Emacs restart.
May 7, 2020 at 10:52
Call this command when the point is anywhere after the first [[ brackets of an org-link (or anywhere on/after an hyper-linked org-link).
An org link will be deleted if it is of the format [[LINK][DESCRIPTION]] or [[LINK]] in an org-mode buffer; else nothing will happen.
For safety, the discarded LINK from org-link is saved to the kill-ring in the event a need arises to use that link elsewhere.
(defun my/org-delete-link ()
"Replace an org link of the format [[LINK][DESCRIPTION]] with DESCRIPTION.
If the link is of the format [[LINK]], delete the whole org link.
In both the cases, save the LINK to the kill-ring.
Execute this command while the point is on or after the hyper-linked org link."
(interactive)
(when (derived-mode-p 'org-mode)
(let ((search-invisible t) start end)
(save-excursion
(when (re-search-backward "\\[\\[" nil :noerror)
(when (re-search-forward "\\[\\[\\(.*?\\)\\(\\]\\[.*?\\)*\\]\\]" nil :noerror)
(setq start (match-beginning 0))
(setq end (match-end 0))
(kill-new (match-string-no-properties 1)) ; Save the link to kill-ring
(replace-regexp "\\[\\[.*?\\(\\]\\[\\(.*?\\)\\)*\\]\\]" "\\2" nil start end)))))))
To remove all links in the selection:
(defun night/org-remove-link-to-desc-at-point ()
"Replace an org link by its description or if empty its address"
(interactive)
(if (org-in-regexp org-link-bracket-re 1)
(save-excursion
(let ((remove (list (match-beginning 0) (match-end 0)))
(description
(if (match-end 2)
(org-match-string-no-properties 2)
(org-match-string-no-properties 1))))
(apply 'delete-region remove)
(insert description)))))
(defun night/org-remove-link-to-desc (beg end)
(interactive "r")
(save-mark-and-excursion
(goto-char beg)
(while (re-search-forward org-link-bracket-re end t)
(goto-char (match-beginning 0))
(night/org-remove-link-to-desc-at-point))))
This very quick and very dirty macro would be one way, not the best way:
(fset 'my/org-remove-link
[?\M-a delete delete ?\M-x ?z ?a ?p ?- ?t ?o ?- ?c ?h ?a ?r return ?\[ ?\C-e backspace backspace ?\C-x])
C-c C-land deleting the existing link works.