Search groups confused by non-breaking spaces?

[baburton]

JabRef version

5.13 (latest release)

Operating system

macOS

Details on version and operating system

macOS Sonoma (14.4.1, latest release)

Checked with the latest development build (copy version output from About dialog)

• [X] I made a backup of my libraries before testing the latest development version.
• [X] I have tested the latest development version and the problem persists

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

Open the attached BibTeX file (awkwardly I've had to attach it as a .txt file because the bug tracker won't let upload a file with extension .bib).

• This file has four references, almost identical except for the use of macros in the abstract. All four abstracts have some version of the string "LaTeX commands".
• This file also has four search groups, all searching for some variant of the string "commands". Some use regexes and some use plain text searches.

When the phrase "LaTeX commands" uses a non-breaking space ({\LaTeX}\ commands or \LateX\ commands), the entry is not matched. When the phrase does not use a non-breaking space ({\LaTeX} commands or just LaTeX commands), the entry is matched.

I had expected that the search for "commands" would not be affected by what appears before it. In particular, it does not seem to be an issue involving word boundaries - you can see two of the search groups search for the substring "mman" and they exhibit the same behaviour.

jabref-nbsp.txt

(Note: apologies but I haven't actually tested against the latest development version because the binaries on builds.jabref.org appear to be unsigned, and I would rather not run untrusted binaries on my system. I have tested this against the latest signed JabRef release, i.e., 5.13.)

Best regards - Ben.

Appendix

...

Log File

Paste an excerpt of your log file here