These should all get escaped:
Backslash: \
Backtick: `
Asterisk: *
Underscore: _
Left brace: {
Right brace: }
Left bracket: [
Right bracket: ]
Left paren: (
Right paren: )
Greater-than: >
Hash: #
Period: .
Bang: !
Plus: +
Minus: -
These should not, because they occur within a code block:
Backslash: \\
Backtick: \`
Asterisk: \*
Underscore: \_
Left brace: \{
Right brace: \}
Left bracket: \[
Right bracket: \]
Left paren: \(
Right paren: \)
Greater-than: \>
Hash: \#
Period: \.
Bang: \!
Plus: \+
Minus: \-
Nor should these, which occur in code spans:
Backslash: \\
Backtick: \`
Asterisk: \*
Underscore: \_
Left brace: \{
Right brace: \}
Left bracket: \[
Right bracket: \]
Left paren: \(
Right paren: \)
Greater-than: \>
Hash: \#
Period: \.
Bang: \!
Plus: \+
Minus: \-
These should get escaped, even though they're matching pairs for other Markdown constructs:
*asterisks*
_underscores_
`backticks`
This is a code span with a literal backslash-backtick sequence: \`
This is a tag with unescaped backticks bar.
This is a tag with backslashes bar.
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