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@uref{url[, text][, replacement]}

@uref produces a reference to a uniform resource locator (url). It takes one mandatory argument, the url, and two optional arguments which control the text that is displayed. In HTML output, @uref produces a link you can follow.

The second argument, if specified, is the text to display (the default is the url itself); in Info and DVI output, but not in HTML output, the url is also output.

The third argument, on the other hand, if specified is also the text to display, but the url is not output in any format. This is useful when the text is already sufficiently referential, as in a man page. If the third argument is given, the second argument is ignored.

The simple one argument form, where the url is both the target and the text of the link:

The official GNU ftp site is @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu}.

produces:

The official GNU ftp site is ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu.

An example of the two-argument form:

The official @uref{ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu, GNU ftp site}
holds programs and texts.

produces:

The official GNU ftp site
holds programs and texts.

that is, the Info output is this:

The official GNU ftp site (ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu)
holds programs and texts.

and the HTML output is this:

The official <a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu">GNU ftp site</a>
holds programs and texts.

An example of the three-argument form:

The @uref{/man.cgi/1/ls,,ls(1)} program ...

produces:

The ls(1) program ...

but with HTML:

The <a href="/man.cgi/1/ls">ls(1)</a> program ...

To merely indicate a url without creating a link people can follow, use @url (see @url).

Some people prefer to display url's in the unambiguous format:

<URL:http://host/path>

You can use this form in the input file if you wish. We feel it's not necessary to clutter up the output with the extra <URL: and >, since any software that tries to detect url's in text already has to detect them without the <URL: to be useful.