[pdftex] pdflatex problem with bibtex URL entries using underscore

[Anand Bedekar]

Problem with bibtex 'URL' field entries having an
underscore '_' in them:

When you run latex (after running bibtex), it
complains about 'Missing $' ,
apparently trying to treat the _ as a math-mode
subscript . Pdflatex appears
to treat this _ correctly. 

If you change the _ in the .bib file to \_ , then
latex works fine by
treating the \_ as \textunderscore in the .bbl file.
However now pdflatex
doesn't like the \textunderscore in the .bbl file: 

! Undefined control sequence.
<argument> ...ct \global \let \OT1\textunderscore 
                                                 
\unhbox \voidb at x \kern .06...
l.21 }
      .

A web search yielded only one reference to this
problem: a mail from 1998
by Sebastian Rahtz.

--------------------------------------------------------
>Sebastian Rahtz s.rahtz at elsevier.co.uk 
>Fri, 4 Dec 1998 09:57:03 +0000 (GMT) 
>
>owner-pdftex at tug.org writes:
> > I cannot write URLs that have underscores in them.
> > 
> > This is what pdflatex says:
> > 
> > ! Undefined control sequence.
> > <argument> ...al \let \OT1\textunderscore
> >                                           \unhbox
\voidb at x \kern .06e...
> > 
>I would guess this results from a fairly ancient
LaTeX, in lieu of any
>more detailed version information.
>
>sebastian

-------------------------------------------------------

Is there a known resolution/workaround?

Thanks in advance.

-Anand

p.s. Latex and pdflatex version information:
(from tetex-1.0.7 package shipped with RedHat Linux
7.2)

$ latex --version
TeX (Web2C 7.3.1) 3.14159
kpathsea version 3.3.1
Copyright (C) 1999 D.E. Knuth.
Kpathsea is copyright (C) 1999 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software
is
covered by the terms of both the TeX copyright and
the GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the
files
named COPYING and the TeX source.
Primary author of TeX: D.E. Knuth.
Kpathsea written by Karl Berry and others.


$ pdflatex --version
pdfTeX (Web2C 7.3.1) 3.14159-0.13d
kpathsea version 3.3.1
Copyright (C) 1999 Han The Thanh, Petr Sojka, and Jiri
Zlatuska.
Kpathsea is copyright (C) 1999 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software
is
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and
the GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the
files
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.
Primary author of pdfTeX: Han The Thanh, Petr Sojka,
and Jiri Zlatuska.
Kpathsea written by Karl Berry and others.

$ uname -a
Linux localhost 2.4.7-10smp #1 SMP Thu Sep 6 17:09:31
EDT 2001 i686 unknown
(..RedHat Linux 7.2)

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