Hyperref levels are embedded, aren't being reset

Question

I'm using the hyperref package with a custom class, and I'm having a problem with hyperref not creating the tree correctly. What I expect to see is this:

+ Section 1
++ Section 1.1
++ Section 1.2
+++ Section 1.2.1
+++ Section 1.2.2
++ Section 1.3
+ Section 2
++ Section 2.1

But what I'm seeing instead is this:

+ Section 1
++ Section 1.1
++ Section 1.2
+++ Section 1.2.1
+++ Section 1.2.2
++++ Section 1.3
+++++ Section 2
++++++ Section 2.1

I am guessing there is some kind of level counter that keeps track of what level of section, subsection, subsubsection, etc. the tree is on, and this just isn't being reset when I run \clearpage or when I create a chapter or section header. But I don't know how to reset it, and I don't know what kind of mechanism hyperref uses to keep track of this. I've been unable to figure out how hyperref does this on my own.

How can I control hyperref's level "counter" from the Latex class level?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The most likely culprit here is the "custom class" that redefines the way sections are typeset. Specifically, there could be an increase in secnumdepth rather that setting it explicitly. Your choices are:

• either edit the custom document class and fix this \addtocounter problem by removing it, and replacing it with the correct, fixed, secnumdepth. For example, in the \section command, use \setcounter{secnumdepth}{3}. In \subsection, remove \addtocounter and use \setcounter{secnumdepth}{4}. In \subsubsection, remove \addtocounter and use \setcounter{secnumdepth}{5}. This will ensure that the respective sectioning command sit at different levels.

• Use the etoolbox package to prepend a single drop in the required counter before expanding as usual. That is, by adding

  \usepackage{etoolbox}% http://ctan.org/pkg/etoolbox
  ...
  \pretocmd{\section}{\addtocounter{secnumdepth}{-1}{}{}%
  \pretocmd{\subsection}{\addtocounter{secnumdepth}{-1}{}{}%
  \pretocmd{\subsubsection}{\addtocounter{secnumdepth}{-1}{}{}%