From dc02fb2bf95fc2bff08b82fb988c020c4e1620c2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Ma=C3=ABlle=20Salmon?= <maelle.salmon@yahoo.se>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:02:08 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 1/3] fix: do not autolink code that is in a link

---
 R/rd-html.R | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/R/rd-html.R b/R/rd-html.R
index 2b6db2009..e141e3e3d 100644
--- a/R/rd-html.R
+++ b/R/rd-html.R
@@ -160,7 +160,8 @@ as_html.tag_url <- function(x, ...) {
 }
 #' @export
 as_html.tag_href <- function(x, ...) {
-  a(flatten_text(x[[2]]), href = flatten_text(x[[1]]))
+  # don't link since we are in a link
+  a(flatten_text(x[[2]], auto_link = FALSE), href = flatten_text(x[[1]]))
 }
 #' @export
 as_html.tag_email <- function(x, ...) {

From 1661114b3d620f8992e9bc384b413dcb5663cf56 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Ma=C3=ABlle=20Salmon?= <maelle.salmon@yahoo.se>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:50:41 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 2/3] test: add test for code within href

---
 tests/testthat/test-rd-html.R | 7 +++++++
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-rd-html.R b/tests/testthat/test-rd-html.R
index b9fe44395..46e87d843 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-rd-html.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-rd-html.R
@@ -319,6 +319,13 @@ test_that("bad specs throw errors", {
   })
 })
 
+test_that("no autolink in href", {
+  expect_equal(
+    rd2html("\\href{https://example.com}{\\code{download.file()}}"),
+    "<a href='https://example.com'><code>download.file()</code></a>"
+  )
+})
+
 # Paragraphs --------------------------------------------------------------
 
 test_that("empty input gives empty output", {

From f4a0e9565f4688937d90460a963864449da719ce Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Ma=C3=ABlle=20Salmon?= <maelle.salmon@yahoo.se>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:58:33 +0100
Subject: [PATCH 3/3] news item

---
 NEWS.md | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index e5087ea93..29315dae5 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # pkgdown (development version)
 
+* do not autolink code that is in a link (href) in Rd files (#2972)
+
 # pkgdown 2.2.0
 
 * Make `build_llm_docs()` more robust to the use of old Pandoc (@nanxstats, @galachad, #2952, #2954)