\verb (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))

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#### 8.27.1 `\verb`

Synopsis:

    \verb char literal-text char
    \verb* char literal-text char

Typeset literal-text as it is input, including special characters and spaces, using the typewriter (`\tt`) font.

This example shows two different invocations of `\verb`.

    This is \verb!literally! the biggest pumpkin ever.
    And this is the best squash, \verb+literally!+

The first `\verb` has its literal-text surrounded with exclamation point, `!`. The second instead uses plus, `+`, because the exclamation point is part of `literal-text`.

The single-character delimiter char surrounds literal-text — it must be the same character before and after. No spaces come between `\verb` or `\verb*` and char, or between char and literal-text, or between literal-text and the second occurrence of char (the synopsis shows a space only to distinguish one component from the other). The delimiter must not appear in literal-text. The literal-text cannot include a line break.

The `*`-form differs only in that spaces are printed with a visible space character.

The output from this will include a character showing the spaces.

    The commands's first argument is \verb*!filename with extension! and ...

For typesetting Internet addresses, urls, the package `url` provides an option that is better than the `\verb` command, since it allows line breaks.

For computer code there are many packages with advantages over `\verb`. One is `listings`, another is `minted`.

You cannot use `\verb` in the argument to a macro, for instance in the argument to a `\section`. It is not a question of `\verb` being fragile (see \protect), instead it just cannot appear there. (But the `cprotect` package can help with this.)

Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual