Masking \end{lstlisting}

Question

I am not sure if I am using the right wording in title. Basically what I need is to add the following source using the listing package.

In preamble:

\usepackage{listings}

then and is here when I have the problem:

\begin{lstlisting}
     \begin{lstlisting}
     \end{lstlisting} 
\end{lstlisting}

but I am getting Package Listings Error: Extra \endlstlisting.

How can I "mask" the first \end{lstlisting}? I've been through the documentation but I am lost.

Answer 1

If you want to show examples of lstlisting itself, define a different environment:

\lstnewenvironment{TeXlstlisting}{\lstset{language=[LaTeX]TeX}}{}

Then

\begin{TeXlstlisting}
  \begin{lstlisting}
  ...
  \end{lstlisting}
\end{TeXlstlisting}

will work. This strategy can be useful also when one has to manage listings in two or more programming languages.

Answer 2

You could use the mathescape=true option to a listing to escape to math but do nothing, tricking listings into breaking the control sequence anywhere into two distinct components. In the MWE below I used \$$end{lstlisting}, breaking it up into \ and end{lstlisting}; the first $ opens and escapes to math mode, while the second $ closes math mode and returns to the listing. listings recognizes the control sequence \end{lstlisting} as the ending otherwise.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{listings}% http://ctan.org/pkg/listing
\begin{document}
\begin{lstlisting}[mathescape=true]
  \begin{lstlisting}
    Hello world!
  \$$end{lstlisting}
​\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}​

Answer 3

I don't think you can nest within the lstlisting environment. Since this is a verbatin environment, the second \begin{lstlisting} is ignored, and the first \end{lstlisting} results in the termination of the outer \begin{lstlisting} leaving an extra \end{lstlisting}.

If you provide more details on exactly what you want to do, perhaps we can provide a way to accomplish that.

If all you want to do is to show the LaTeX output using the listings environment, I'd use the showexpl package:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{showexpl}

\lstdefinestyle{demoLatexStyle}{
    basicstyle=\small\ttfamily,
    numbers=left, numberstyle=\tiny, stepnumber=2, numbersep=5pt,
    frame=none,
    basicstyle=\small\ttfamily,% print whole listing small
}
\lstloadlanguages{[LaTeX]TeX}

\begin{document}
\begin{LTXexample}[pos=b,style=demoLatexStyle]
     \begin{lstlisting}
        blah blah
     \end{lstlisting} 
\end{LTXexample}
\enddocument}