remark-validate-links and paths

[undavide]

Hi there,
I am running the following npm script: "test:links": remark src/pages --quiet --frail" in a Gatsby based repo, with also:

"remarkConfig": {
  "plugins": [
    "remark-validate-links"
  ]
}

With remark-validate-links v12.x, links that pointed to files within src/pages could be written as absolute paths. For instance, given this folder structure:

.
└── src
    └── pages
        ├── guides
        │   └── index.md
        └── references
            └── index.md

A link in src/pages/guides/index.md could be formed either as:

• [References](/references/index.md)
• [References](../references/index.md)

I.e., src/pages was implied. Starting from v13.x, absolute paths throw a warning. This is just a simple example, but with more complex folder structures, you're drowned in ../../../.., and as soon as I updated the package I got ~200 new warnings. Please note, Gatsby can manage both urls without a problem.

I tried (unsuccessfully) to use urlConfig to get back to the old behavior, I'm wondering whether it's even possible.
Thanks!

Davide

[wooorm]

Hi!

This seems to be remarkjs/remark-validate-links#78.

Please note, Gatsby can manage both urls without a problem.

That is indeed the problem: Gatsby has a particular URL transform for how it does websites.
This project has no clue how that transform works.
This project is focussed on how GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket and similar work with Git repos.
It is not for Gatsby.

More on this can be found in the readme: https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-validate-links#when-should-i-use-this.

It sounds like you are looking more for https://github.com/remarkjs/remark-lint-no-dead-urls.
Importantly though, to have it understand URLs relative to the page, you need to somehow implement Gatsby’s transform, and expose where markdown files “end up” as origin and pathname on file.data.meta.

[undavide]

Hi @wooorm,
thanks for the detailed answer. I see your point, and I'll check out remark-lint-no-dead-urls.
I'm still slightly puzzled as to why v12 was Gatsby-friendly, and v13 isn't anymore. Maybe the line between bug and feature is very fine indeed (just read the changelog)