bug#69266: 30.0.50; bibtex-parse-entry misreads escaped \}

[Arash Esbati]

Ihor Radchenko <yantar92@posteo.net> writes:

> Consider the following bibtex entry:
>
> @InCollection{Geyer2011,
>   title           = {Introduction to Markov Chain Monte  \} Carlo},
>   pages           = 45,
> }
>
> According to https://www.bibtex.org/SpecialSymbols/, characters that
> conflict with Bibtex format description can be \-escaped.
>
> In the above, with point at the beginning of the entry, M-:
> (bibtex-parse-entry t), yields
>
> ("=type=" . "InCollection")
> ("=key=" . "Geyer2011")
> ("title" . "Introduction to Markov Chain Monte  \\")
>
> The escaped \} is treated as closing }, which is incorrect.
>
> Expected: escaping is properly processed.

I think the issue is that `bibtex-parse-entry' calls
`bibtex-text-in-field-bounds' which calls `bibtex-parse-field-string'
which is defined like this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defun bibtex-parse-field-string ()
  "Parse a BibTeX field string enclosed by braces or quotes.
If a syntactically correct string is found, a pair containing the start and
end position of the field string is returned, nil otherwise.
Do not move point."
  (let ((end-point
         (or (and (eq (following-char) ?\")
                  (save-excursion
                    (with-syntax-table bibtex-quoted-string-syntax-table
                      (forward-sexp 1))
                    (point)))
             (and (eq (following-char) ?\{)
                  (save-excursion
                    (with-syntax-table bibtex-braced-string-syntax-table
                      (forward-sexp 1))
                    (point))))))
    (if end-point
        (cons (point) end-point))))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

`bibtex-braced-string-syntax-table' is defined as:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defconst bibtex-braced-string-syntax-table
  (let ((st (make-syntax-table)))
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\{ "(}" st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\} "){" st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\[ "." st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\] "." st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\( "." st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\) "." st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\\ "." st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\" "." st)
    st)
  "Syntax-table to parse matched braces.")
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

where the backslash gets the punctuation class.  Hence, the
(forward-sexp 1) call above goes wrong.  You can eval this in scratch

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defconst bibtex-braced-string-syntax-table
  (let ((st (make-syntax-table)))
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\{ "(}" st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\} "){" st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\[ "." st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\] "." st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\( "." st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\) "." st)
    ;; "." changed to "\\"
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\\ "\\" st)
    (modify-syntax-entry ?\" "." st)
    st)
  "Syntax-table to parse matched braces.")
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

and try your test case again -- it should give the expected result.  I
can't tell why the backslash doesn't get the escape-char syntax, it
would make sense IMO, but that's something Roland W. (CC'ed) has to
decide.

Best, Arash