Add ignore_links and as_needed options to utils.escape_markdown.

This allows for URLs to be left alone since they can include markdown
characters and allows for total escaping of all markdown characters
by default to prevent some form of data manipulation.

discord/utils.py

@@ -369,15 +369,26 @@ def resolve_invite(invite):
 _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_SUBREGEX = '|'.join(r'\{0}(?=([\s\S]*((?<!\{0})\{0})))'.format(c)
                                      for c in ('*', '`', '_', '~', '|'))
 
-_MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX = re.compile('(%s)' % _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_SUBREGEX)
+_MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX = re.compile(r'(?P<markdown>%s)' % _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_SUBREGEX)
 
-def escape_markdown(text):
+def escape_markdown(text, *, as_needed=False, ignore_links=True):
-    """A helper function that escapes Discord's markdown.
+    r"""A helper function that escapes Discord's markdown.
 
     Parameters
     -----------
     text: :class:`str`
         The text to escape markdown from.
+    as_needed: :class:`bool`
+        Whether to escape the markdown characters as needed. This
+        means that it does not escape extraneous characters if it's
+        not necessary, e.g. ``**hello**`` is escaped into ``\*\*hello**``
+        instead of ``\*\*hello\*\*``. Note however that this can open
+        you up to some clever syntax abuse. Defaults to ``False``.
+    ignore_links: :class:`bool`
+        Whether to leave links alone when escaping markdown. For example,
+        if a URL in the text contains characters such as ``_`` then it will
+        be left alone. This option is not supported with ``as_needed``.
+        Defaults to ``True``.
 
     Returns
     --------
@@ -385,8 +396,22 @@ def escape_markdown(text):
         The text with the markdown special characters escaped with a slash.
     """
 
-    text = re.sub(r'\\', r'\\\\', text)
+    if not as_needed:
-    return _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX.sub(r'\\\1', text)
+        url_regex = r'(?P<url>(?:https?|steam)://(?:-\.)?(?:[^\s/?\.#-]+\.?)+(?:/[^\s]*)?)'
+        def replacement(match):
+            groupdict = match.groupdict()
+            is_url = groupdict.get('url')
+            if is_url:
+                return is_url
+            return '\\' + groupdict['markdown']
+
+        regex = r'(?P<markdown>[_\\~|\*])'
+        if ignore_links:
+            regex = '(?:%s|%s)' % (url_regex, regex)
+        return re.sub(regex, replacement, text)
+    else:
+        text = re.sub(r'\\', r'\\\\', text)
+        return _MARKDOWN_ESCAPE_REGEX.sub(r'\\\1', text)
 
 def escape_mentions(text):
     """A helper function that escapes everyone, here, role, and user mentions.