How do I prevent auto-generated links in the GitHub wiki?

Question

On a GitHub wiki page, if I type:

www.foobar.com

GitHub automatically assumes this is a URL and makes the text a hyperlink to http://www.foobar.com. However, sometimes I do not want a hyperlink to be created. Is there a way to stop this behavior? Perhaps some sort of markdown?

Answer 1

This isn't limited to wiki page, and is part of the GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown) url autolinking feature.

Putting them in `` can work but display the url as a code: foo http://example.com bar.

foo `http://example.com` bar

Another trick (mentioned in this gist) is

ht<span>tp://</span>example.com 

That will display http://example.com as regular text.

In your case (without the http://)

w<span>ww.</span>foobar.com

That would also display www.foobar.com as regular text.

geekley adds in the comments:

For emails, you can use foo<span>@</span>example.com

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Venryx suggests in the comments a shorter/cleaner solution:

Just add one of the void element tags (I prefer <area>), at a location that breaks the URL detectability, eg. right before the first dot.

Example: www<area>.foobar.com