How do I use regex in Render Targets

[vishalpaudel]

Description

I am doing the following inside _quarto.yml:

project:
  type: website
  render:
    - "*.qmd"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem01/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem02/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem03/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem04/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem05/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem06/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem07/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem08/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem09/README.md"

What I want to do ideally:

project:
  type: website
  render:
    - "*.qmd"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem*/README.md"

Or better yet:

project:
  type: website
  render:
    - "*.qmd"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/**/README.md"

None of this is working for me, is this is not supported yet? Are there any other way of doing this? Please also provide links to the reference/documentation.

I am using version 1.7.6, quarto-cli-bin from AUR.

[mcanouil]

When using pre-releases, please ensure you are always using the latest. Those versions are "unstable".

FYI, the documentation:

• https://quarto.org/docs/websites/index.html#render-targets
• https://quarto.org/docs/projects/quarto-projects.html#render-targets

Could you share a small self-contained "working" (reproducible) example to work with, i.e., a complete Quarto document or a Git repository? The goal is to make it as easy as possible for us to recreate your problem so that we can fix it: please help us help you! Thanks.

---

You can share a self-contained "working" (reproducible) Quarto document using the following syntax, i.e., using more backticks than you have in your document (usually four ````).
See https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#small-is-beautiful-aim-for-a-single-document-with-10-lines.

If you have multiple files (and if it is absolutely required to have multiple files), please share as a Git repository.

R	Python
````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: knitr --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{r} x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) y <- c(1, 4, 9, 16, 25) plot(x, y) ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````	````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: jupyter --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{python} import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] y = [1, 4, 9, 16, 25] plt.plot(x, y) plt.show() ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````

Additionally and if not already given, please share the output of quarto check within a code block (i.e., using three backticks ```txt), see https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#check.

[mcanouil]

When using pre-releases, please ensure you are always using the latest. Those versions are "unstable".

Could you share a small self-contained "working" (reproducible) example to work with, i.e., a complete Quarto document or a Git repository? The goal is to make it as easy as possible for us to recreate your problem so that we can fix it: please help us help you! Thanks.

---

You can share a self-contained "working" (reproducible) Quarto document using the following syntax, i.e., using more backticks than you have in your document (usually four ````).
See https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#small-is-beautiful-aim-for-a-single-document-with-10-lines.

If you have multiple files (and if it is absolutely required to have multiple files), please share as a Git repository.

R	Python
````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: knitr --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{r} x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) y <- c(1, 4, 9, 16, 25) plot(x, y) ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````	````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: jupyter --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{python} import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] y = [1, 4, 9, 16, 25] plt.plot(x, y) plt.show() ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````

Additionally and if not already given, please share the output of quarto check within a code block (i.e., using three backticks ```txt), see https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#check.

[vishalpaudel]

So /my/example/folder/.qmd and /my/example/folder/.md works. But they won't ever return the files that match the above ignored patterns.

Okay this is much clearer definitely. But @cderv but then how do I achieve globing for README.md???

[vishalpaudel]

I find this a use case as subdirectories may have README.md, and in github, subdirectory readmes act as index pages.

[vishalpaudel]

Also, @cderv don't you think what I explicitly am trying to mark to render, should not be ignored. Why is it that what I am trying to un-ignore by adding in render gets ignored if I use globbing, but does not get ignored when I write the full path. I think this needs to be fixed.

[cderv]

gets ignored if I use globbing, but does not get ignored when I write the full path.

let me try to explain a bit more how this works. The ignoring happens when resolving the glob pattern. So the limitation is that any of the glob pattern won't even match to one of the ignored pattern.

So the limitation is at globbing resolution for render target. But when using a full path, there is no globbing resolution, and this is why it works.

I find this a use case as subdirectories may have README.md, and in github, subdirectory readmes act as index pages.

This is Github behavior. In a website, if you have a README.md then it would be rendered as README.html and not as index.html. This is precisely why they are ignored, because usually README.md are files for your source repo on Github, as they are nicely rendered. But you don't want an equivalent README.html page in your website.

how do I achieve globing for README.md???

I mentioned to you pre-render script. You said this works

project:
  type: website
  render:
    - "*.qmd"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem01/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem02/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem03/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem04/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem05/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem06/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem07/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem08/README.md"
    - "DynamicsSimulations/problem09/README.md"

So you could have a pre-render script that runs before render each time that would

• iterate on your folder structure and find all your README.md file you want to render
• parse the _quarto.yml currently in source, and look at project.render field
• Compare the list with the README.md found
• add the missing one
• Write back the full YAML

If you do that, then you are explicitly passing the files as render target.

As I understand you want some index.html in your website to be same content as readme. You could also have those file as index.md

---
title: Homepage for subfolder
format: html
---

{{< include README.md >}}

This way the same content would be used and you would have a index.html for your website.

I hope this illustrates how you can use some of Quarto's features to overcome limitations.

Read more about the feature in the doc to learn more.

Hope it helps

[vishalpaudel]

@cderv @mcanouil you guys are awesome

[mcanouil]

For reference (at top level in this thread): (the title mention qmd but it's the same thing for md or rmd README)

• Can't render README.qmd by default or recursively #1615