How do I insert inline code with square brackets in org-mode?

Question

I would like to include some examples of regular expressions in an org-mode file. I would like to write ~[[:whitespace:]]~.

However, [[:whitespace:]] is interpreted as a footnote/link, regardless of the syntax:

[[:whitespace:]]

~[[:whitespace:]]~

=[[:whitespace:]]=

I've also tried escaping the brackets \[\[:whitespace:\]\] but that just shows the \ in my org-mode buffer.

How can I write [[:whitespace:]] in inline code?

Answer 1

You can insert a zero width space between the first two brackets to avoid triggering link detection.

You would type: ~[, then C-x 8 RET ZERO WIDTH SPACE RET, and then continue with the second bracket [:whitespace:]]~.

Problems:

1. This is a hack.
2. Copying and pasting to a terminal will carry the invisible space, so it won't work for testing the examples.

Note: I once saw this hack being used for passwords, so that you had to copy paste the password, and re-typing it would not work. Arghhh! Discovered this via hex dump.

Answer 2

Edit: Turns out, this answer does not solve the problem. I had been playing around with M-x org-toggle-link-display and had left it on literal display, which made me think that the brackets were displaying correctly.

So, if turning off the descriptive display of all links is not acceptable, then the only solution I found is a normal source or example block. For example:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
[[:whitespace:]]
#+END_EXAMPLE

But that has the disadvantage that it displays as a block, rather than inline.

Original answer (which does not work):

I think the best solution is to use an inline source block:

An example regular expression is src_lisp{[[:whitespace:]]}

See the manual page