stripAnchors

Specification for the stripAnchors compile hook. The Spec-to-test map names the tests behind this spec.

stripAnchors purpose

The hook removes {#id} anchor markers from each shard body. With compile.stripAnchors (default true), the same strip runs once more on the stitched guide.

A marker goes with the whitespace before it on the same line. When a marker opens a line’s text, the whitespace after it goes instead, and the line keeps its indent. The strip drops a line that contains only a marker, and when that line opens the text or follows a blank line, the blank line right after it goes too.

stripAnchors heading lines

A line that Merlon Docs reads as a heading, an ATX heading at column 0, loses every marker, even inside a fenced code block or a code span. Heading slugs drop every marker from a title and skip the lines that the fence scan reads as code. The scan ignores HTML and can misread a fence there, so stripping every heading line keeps a marker off a rendered heading even then.

To show the syntax on a heading inside a fenced example, start the heading line one to three spaces in. Merlon Docs doesn’t read that line as a heading. The strip treats it as fenced text and keeps its marker. Outside a fence the same line is prose, and its marker goes.

stripAnchors code

On any other line, a {#id} inside a fenced code block or an inline code span stays. The hook finds both with the fence scan.

stripAnchors limits

The strip reads an indented code block as prose, as the fence scan does. It removes a marker there unless the marker is inside a code span on its line. The hook runs the scan without the blockquote text, so a fence behind > is prose to it too, and a marker there goes unless a code span on its line holds it. Where the fence scan limits misread a fence or shift the pairing of code spans, the strip can drop a quoted marker or keep a prose one.