org-mode macro not evaluated inside link?

Question

If I create a file with {{{input-file}}} as contents and export to HTML, the default macro is correctly evaluated to the filename. However, if I write [[file:{{{input-file}}}.alternative][Alternative version]] the macro is not evaluated. However, if I place the macro on the other part of the link: [[file:manual.html.alternative][{{{input-file}}}.alternative]] then it works! If I use it in a #+BEGIN_HTML #+END_HTML session instead of in a link the macro isn't evaluated either.

How can I fix this?

Answer 1

You can try a emacs-lisp src block with raw results.

For example:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp :exports results :results raw
(concat "[[file:./" (buffer-file-name) ".alternative]]" )
#+end_src

To get rid of confirmation messages, you can use the org-confirm-babel-evaluatevariable. This is my setting:

    (defun my-org-confirm-babel-evaluate (lang body)
       (not (member lang '("dot" "emacs-lisp" "shell" "plantuml"))))
    (setq org-confirm-babel-evaluate 'my-org-confirm-babel-evaluate)