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MARKDOWN(7) | Miscellaneous Information Manual | MARKDOWN(7) |
NAME¶
Markdown
—
The Markdown text formatting syntax
DESCRIPTION¶
Philosophy¶
Markdown
is intended to be as easy-to-read
and easy-to-write as is feasible.
Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted
document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it's
been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown's syntax
has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters -- including
Setext, atx,
Textile,
reStructuredText,
Grutatext, and
EtText -- the single biggest source of
inspiration for Markdown's syntax is the format of plain text email.
To this end, Markdown's syntax is comprised entirely of punctuation characters,
which punctuation characters have been carefully chosen so as to look like
what they mean. E.g., asterisks around a word actually look like *emphasis*.
Markdown lists look like, well, lists. Even blockquotes look like quoted
passages of text, assuming you've ever used email.
Inline HTML¶
Markdown's syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a format for writing for the web.Markdown
is not a replacement for HTML, or
even close to it. Its syntax is very small, corresponding only to a very small
subset of HTML tags. The idea is not to create a
syntax that makes it easier to insert HTML tags. In my opinion, HTML tags are
already easy to insert. The idea for Markdown is to make it easy to read,
write, and edit prose. HTML is a publishing
format; Markdown is a writing format. Thus,
Markdown's formatting syntax only addresses issues that can be conveyed in
plain text.
For any markup that is not covered by Markdown's syntax, you simply use HTML
itself. There's no need to preface it or delimit it to indicate that you're
switching from Markdown to HTML; you just use the tags.
The only restrictions are that block-level HTML elements -- e.g.
<div>
, <table>
,
<pre>
, <p>
, etc.
-- must be separated from surrounding content by blank lines, and the start
and end tags of the block should not be indented with tabs or spaces. Markdown
is smart enough not to add extra (unwanted) <p>
tags around HTML block-level tags.
For example, to add an HTML table to a Markdown article:
This is a regular paragraph. <table> <tr> <td>Foo</td> </tr> </table> This is another regular paragraph.
*emphasis*
inside an HTML block.
Span-level HTML tags -- e.g. <span>
,
<cite>
, or <del>
-- can be used anywhere in a Markdown paragraph, list item, or header. If you
want, you can even use HTML tags instead of Markdown formatting; e.g. if you'd
prefer to use HTML <a>
or
<img>
tags instead of Markdown's link or image
syntax, go right ahead.
Unlike block-level HTML tags, Markdown syntax *is* processed within span-level
tags.
Automatic Escaping for Special Characters¶
In HTML, there are two characters that demand special treatment: `<` and `&`. Left angle brackets are used to start tags; ampersands are used to denote HTML entities. If you want to use them as literal characters, you must escape them as entities, e.g. `<`, and `&`. Ampersands in particular are bedeviling for web writers. If you want to write about 'AT&T', you need to write '`AT&T`'. You even need to escape ampersands within URLs. Thus, if you want to link to: you need to encode the URL as: in your anchor tag `href` attribute. Needless to say, this is easy to forget, and is probably the single most common source of HTML validation errors in otherwise well-marked-up web sites.Markdown
allows you to use these characters
naturally, taking care of all the necessary escaping for you. If you use an
ampersand as part of an HTML entity, it remains unchanged; otherwise it will
be translated into `&`.
So, if you want to include a copyright symbol in your article, you can write:
©
AT&T
Markdown
will translate it to:
AT&T
4 < 5
Markdown
will translate it to:
4 < 5
Block Elements¶
Paragraphs and Line Breaks¶
A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a blank line -- a line containing nothing but spaces or tabs is considered blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be indented with spaces or tabs. The implication of the “one or more consecutive lines of text” rule is that Markdown supports “hard-wrapped” Dtext paragraphs. This differs significantly from most other text-to-HTML formatters (including Movable Type's “Convert Line Breaks” option) which translate every line break character in a paragraph into a `<br />` tag. When you *do* want to insert a `<br />` break tag using Markdown, you end a line with two or more spaces, then type return. Yes, this takes a tad more effort to create a `<br />`, but a simplistic "every line break is a `<br />`" rule wouldn't work for Markdown. Markdown's email-style blockquotingand multi-paragraph list items work best -- and look better -- when you format them with hard breaks.
Headers¶
Markdown
supports two styles of headers,
Setext and atx.
Setext-style headers are ‘underlined’ using equal signs (for
first-level headers) and dashes (for second-level headers). For example:
This is an H1 ============= This is an H2 -------------
# This is an H1 ## This is an H2 ###### This is an H6
# This is an H1 # ## This is an H2 ## ### This is an H3 ######
Blockquotes¶
Markdown
uses email-style `>` characters
for blockquoting. If you're familiar with quoting passages of text in an email
message, then you know how to create a blockquote in Markdown. It looks best
if you hard wrap the text and put a `>` before every line:
> This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum > dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam > hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi, > viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. > > Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet > velit. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus > adipiscing.
Markdown
allows you to be lazy and only put
the `>` before the first line of a hard-wrapped paragraph:
> This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. > Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
> This is the first level of quoting. > > > This is nested blockquote. > > Back to the first level.
> ## This is a header. > > 1. This is the first list item. > 2. This is the second list item. > > Here's some example code: > > return shell_exec("echo $input | $markdown_script");
Lists¶
Markdown
supports ordered (numbered) and
unordered (bulleted) lists.
Unordered lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens -- interchangably -- as list
markers:
* Red * Green * Blue
+ Red + Green + Blue
- Red - Green - Blue
1. Bird 2. McHale 3. Parish
<ol> <li>Bird</li> <li>McHale</li> <li>Parish</li> </ol>
1. Bird 1. McHale 1. Parish
3. Bird 1. McHale 8. Parish
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. * Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. * Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
* Bird * Magic
<ul> <li>Bird</li> <li>Magic</li> </ul>
* Bird * Magic
<ul> <li><p>Bird</p></li> <li><p>Magic</p></li> </ul>
1. This is a list item with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus. Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. 2. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
* This is a list item with two paragraphs. This is the second paragraph in the list item. You're only required to indent the first line. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. * Another item in the same list.
* A list item with a blockquote: > This is a blockquote > inside a list item.
* A list item with a code block: <code goes here>
1986. What a great season.
1986\. What a great season.
Code Blocks¶
Pre-formatted code blocks are used for writing about programming or markup source code. Rather than forming normal paragraphs, the lines of a code block are interpreted literally. Markdown wraps a code block in both `<pre>` and `<code>` tags. To produce a code block in Markdown, simply indent every line of the block by at least 4 spaces or 1 tab. For example, given this input:This is a normal paragraph: This is a code block.
Markdown
will generate:
<p>This is a normal paragraph:</p> <pre><code>This is a code block. </code></pre>
Here is an example of AppleScript: tell application "Foo" beep end tell
<p>Here is an example of AppleScript:</p> <pre><code>tell application "Foo" beep end tell </code></pre>
<div class="footer"> © 2004 Foo Corporation </div>
<pre><code><div class="footer"> &copy; 2004 Foo Corporation </div> </code></pre>
Horizontal Rules¶
You can produce a horizontal rule tag (`<hr />`) by placing three or more hyphens, asterisks, or underscores on a line by themselves. If you wish, you may use spaces between the hyphens or asterisks. Each of the following lines will produce a horizontal rule:* * * *** ***** - - - ---------------------------------------
Span Elements¶
Links¶
Markdown
supports two style of links:
inline and
reference.
In both styles, the link text is delimited by [square brackets].
To create an inline link, use a set of regular parentheses immediately after the
link text's closing square bracket. Inside the parentheses, put the URL where
you want the link to point, along with an *optional* title for the link,
surrounded in quotes. For example:
This is [an example](http://example.com/ "Title") inline link. [This link](http://example.net/) has no title attribute.
<p>This is <a href="http://example.com/" title="Title"> an example</a> inline link.</p> <p><a href="http://example.net/">This link</a> has no title attribute.</p>
See my [About](/about/) page for details.
This is [an example][id] reference-style link.
This is [an example] [id] reference-style link.
[id]: http://example.com/ "Optional Title Here"
- Square brackets containing the link identifier (optionally indented from the left margin using up to three spaces);
- followed by a colon;
- followed by one or more spaces (or tabs);
- followed by the URL for the link;
- optionally followed by a title attribute for the link, enclosed in double or single quotes, or enclosed in parentheses.
[foo]: http://example.com/ "Optional Title Here" [foo]: http://example.com/ 'Optional Title Here' [foo]: http://example.com/ (Optional Title Here)
[id]: <http://example.com/> "Optional Title Here"
[id]: http://example.com/longish/path/to/resource/here "Optional Title Here"
[link text][a] [link text][A]
[Google][]
[Google]: http://google.com/
Visit [Daring Fireball][] for more information.
[Daring Fireball]: http://daringfireball.net/
I get 10 times more traffic from [Google] [1] than from [Yahoo] [2] or [MSN] [3]. [1]: http://google.com/ "Google" [2]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search" [3]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search"
I get 10 times more traffic from [Google][] than from [Yahoo][] or [MSN][]. [google]: http://google.com/ "Google" [yahoo]: http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search" [msn]: http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search"
<p>I get 10 times more traffic from <a href="http://google.com/" title="Google">Google</a> than from <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/" title="Yahoo Search">Yahoo</a> or <a href="http://search.msn.com/" title="MSN Search">MSN</a>.</p>
I get 10 times more traffic from [Google](http://google.com/ "Google") than from [Yahoo](http://search.yahoo.com/ "Yahoo Search") or [MSN](http://search.msn.com/ "MSN Search").
Emphasis¶
Markdown treats asterisks (`*`) and underscores (`_`) as indicators of emphasis. Text wrapped with one `*` or `_` will be wrapped with an HTML `<em>` tag; double `*`'s or `_`'s will be wrapped with an HTML `<strong>` tag. E.g., this input:*single asterisks* _single underscores_ **double asterisks** __double underscores__
<em>single asterisks</em> <em>single underscores</em> <strong>double asterisks</strong> <strong>double underscores</strong>
un*fucking*believable
\*this text is surrounded by literal asterisks\*
Code¶
To indicate a span of code, wrap it with backtick quotes (`` ` ``). Unlike a pre-formatted code block, a code span indicates code within a normal paragraph. For example:Use the `printf()` function.
<p>Use the <code>printf()</code> function.</p>
``There is a literal backtick (`) here.``
<p><code>There is a literal backtick (`) here.</code></p>
A single backtick in a code span: `` ` `` A backtick-delimited string in a code span: `` `foo` ``
<p>A single backtick in a code span: <code>`</code></p> <p>A backtick-delimited string in a code span: <code>`foo`</code></p>
Please don't use any `<blink>` tags.
<p>Please don't use any <code><blink></code> tags.</p>
`—` is the decimal-encoded equivalent of `—`.
<p><code>&#8212;</code> is the decimal-encoded equivalent of <code>&mdash;</code>.</p>
Images¶
Admittedly, it's fairly difficult to devise a “natural” syntax for placing images into a plain text document format. Markdown uses an image syntax that is intended to resemble the syntax for links, allowing for two styles: inline and reference. Inline image syntax looks like this:![Alt text](/path/to/img.jpg) ![Alt text](/path/to/img.jpg =Optional size "Optional title")
- An exclamation mark: `!`;
- followed by a set of square brackets, containing the `alt` attribute text for the image;
- followed by a set of parentheses, containing the URL or path to the image,
an optional `size` attribute (in width
c
height format) prefixed with a `=`, and an optional `title` attribute enclosed in double or single quotes.
![Alt text][id]
[id]: url/to/image =Optional size "Optional title attribute"
Miscellaneous¶
Automatic Links¶
Markdown
supports a shortcut style for
creating “automatic” links for URLs and email addresses: simply
surround the URL or email address with angle brackets. What this means is that
if you want to
show the actual text of a URL or email address, and also have it be
a clickable link, you can do this:
Markdown
will turn this into:
<a href="http://example.com/">http://example.com/</a>
<address@example.com>
<a href="mailto:addre ss@example.co m">address@exa mple.com</a>
Backslash Escapes¶
Markdown
allows you to use backslash escapes
to generate literal characters which would otherwise have special meaning in
Markdown's formatting syntax. For example, if you wanted to surround a word
with literal asterisks (instead of an HTML `<em>` tag), you add
backslashes before the asterisks, like this:
\*literal asterisks\*
Markdown
provides backslash escapes for the
following characters:
- backslash
- `
- backtick
- *
- asterisk
- _
- underscore
- {
- curly braces
- []
- square brackets
- ()
- parentheses
- #
- hash mark
- +
- plus sign
- -
- minus sign (hyphen)
- .
- dot
- !
- exclamation mark
BUGS¶
Markdown
assumes that tabs are set to 4
spaces.
AUTHOR¶
John Gruber http://daringfireball.net/SEE ALSO¶
markdown(1), markdown(3), mkd-callbacks(3), mkd-functions(3), mkd-extensions(7). http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdownDecember 22, 2007 | MASTODON |