20

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).

1
  • Starting with Org mode version 9.4 (commit 6d62c76d2), deleting the link part does not give an error any longer: C-c C-l and deleting the existing link works.
    – NickD
    May 9, 2021 at 15:28

7 Answers 7

14

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.

5
  • 1
    That's a very neat compact solution! I updated my answer to support [[LINK]] format org links too. I learned about match-beginning and match-end from your answer. Apr 16, 2015 at 14:09
  • I had to change 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!
    – midas0441
    Sep 19, 2020 at 16:17
  • 1
    @Raj Many thanks. Code updated. This changed in version 9.3. Sep 20, 2020 at 8:23
  • I want to do this on all links in the selection; How to adapt this?
    – HappyFace
    Aug 17, 2021 at 9:23
  • @HappyFace I have now added a function to do this. Aug 17, 2021 at 11:16
7

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)))))
7

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)))))))
4
  • Can you add how to bind your command to a key so it's sufficient for novices?
    – user12563
    Apr 21, 2019 at 22:05
  • 1
    This seems to delete white spaces after the link. Any idea how to keep them?
    – Timm
    Feb 23, 2020 at 11:25
  • I want to do this on all links in the selection; How to adapt this?
    – HappyFace
    Aug 17, 2021 at 9:23
  • @Timm If you query (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
4

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.

6
  • 1
    This seems to delete the entire link, but I want to remove the link and preserve the text (i.e. the description). Apr 16, 2015 at 1:15
  • 1
    Sorry, I guess I misunderstood your question. Apr 16, 2015 at 8:01
  • 1
    To the downvoters out there: The question was ambiguous when I answered it. It has been edited since then, removing the ambiguity. I do leave the answer up, though, since it still seems the easiest way to delete the entire link, description and all. Apr 17, 2015 at 7:03
  • This frequently does not select the whole link. Some ]] 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
  • @GünterZöchbauer That's quite odd, I think, unless of course either the link text or the link itself contains unbalanced delimiters. I can't think of a reasonable explanation. (Which doesn't mean one can't be found.) May 7, 2020 at 19:03
4

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)))))))
2

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))))
1

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])

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