GitHub Flavored Markdown Spec https://github.github.

com/gfm/

GitHub Flav�ed Markdown Spec

Version 0.29-gfm (2019-04-06)
This formal specification is based on the CommonMark Spec by John MacFarlane and licensed under

1 Introduction
1.1 What is GitHub Flavored Markdown?
1.2 What is Markdown?
1.3 Why is a spec needed?
1.4 About this document
2 Preliminaries
2.1 Characters and lines
2.2 Tabs
2.3 Insecure characters
3 Blocks and inlines
3.1 Precedence
3.2 Container blocks and leaf blocks
4 Leaf blocks
4.1 Thematic breaks
4.2 ATX headings
4.3 Setext headings
4.4 Indented code blocks
4.5 Fenced code blocks
4.6 HTML blocks
4.7 Link reference definitions
4.8 Paragraphs
4.9 Blank lines
4.10 Tables (extension)
5 Container blocks
5.1 Block quotes
5.2 List items
5.3 Task list items (extension)
5.4 Lists
6 Inlines
6.1 Backslash escapes
6.2 Entity and numeric character references
6.3 Code spans
6.4 Emphasis and strong emphasis
6.5 Strikethrough (extension)
6.6 Links
6.7 Images
6.8 Autolinks
6.9 Autolinks (extension)
6.10 Raw HTML
6.11 Disallowed Raw HTML (extension)
6.12 Hard line breaks
6.13 Soft line breaks
6.14 Textual content
Appendix: A parsing strategy

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Overview
Phase 1: block structure
Phase 2: inline structure

1 Introduction
1.1 What is GitHub Flav�ed Markdown? ▲
GitHub Flavored Markdown, often shortened as GFM, is the dialect of Markdown that is
currently supported for user content on GitHub.com and GitHub Enterprise.

This formal specification, based on the CommonMark Spec, defines the syntax and semantics
of this dialect.

GFM is a strict superset of CommonMark. All the features which are supported in GitHub user
content and that are not specified on the original CommonMark Spec are hence known as
extensions, and highlighted as such.

While GFM supports a wide range of inputs, it’s worth noting that GitHub.com and GitHub
Enterprise perform additional post-processing and sanitization after GFM is converted to
HTML to ensure security and consistency of the website.

1.2 What is Markdown? ▲

Markdown is a plain text format for writing structured documents, based on conventions
for indicating formatting in email and usenet posts. It was developed by John Gruber (with
help from Aaron Swartz) and released in 2004 in the form of a syntax description and a Perl
script (Markdown.pl) for converting Markdown to HTML. In the next decade, dozens of
implementations were developed in many languages. Some extended the original Markdown
syntax with conventions for footnotes, tables, and other document elements. Some allowed
Markdown documents to be rendered in formats other than HTML. Websites like Reddit,
StackOverflow, and GitHub had millions of people using Markdown. And Markdown started to
be used beyond the web, to author books, articles, slide shows, letters, and lecture notes.

What distinguishes Markdown from many other lightweight markup syntaxes, which are often
easier to write, is its readability. As Gruber writes:

The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as

readable as possible. The idea is that 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. (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/)

The point can be illustrated by comparing a sample of AsciiDoc with an equivalent sample of
Markdown. Here is a sample of AsciiDoc from the AsciiDoc manual:

1. List item one.

+
List item one continued with a second paragraph followed by an
Indented block.
+
.................
$ ls *.sh

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$ mv *.sh ~/tmp
.................
+
List item continued with a third paragraph.

2. List item two continued with an open block.

+
--
This paragraph is part of the preceding list item.

a. This list is nested and does not require explicit item

continuation.
+
This paragraph is part of the preceding list item.

b. List item b.

This paragraph belongs to item two of the outer list.

--

And here is the equivalent in Markdown:

1. List item one.

List item one continued with a second paragraph followed by an

Indented block.

$ ls *.sh
$ mv *.sh ~/tmp

List item continued with a third paragraph.

2. List item two continued with an open block.

This paragraph is part of the preceding list item.

1. This list is nested and does not require explicit item continuation.

This paragraph is part of the preceding list item.

2. List item b.

This paragraph belongs to item two of the outer list.

The AsciiDoc version is, arguably, easier to write. You don’t need to worry about indentation.
But the Markdown version is much easier to read. The nesting of list items is apparent to the
eye in the source, not just in the processed document.

1.3 Why is a spec n�ded? ▲

John Gruber’s canonical description of Markdown’s syntax does not specify the syntax
unambiguously. Here are some examples of questions it does not answer:

1. How much indentation is needed for a sublist? The spec says that continuation
paragraphs need to be indented four spaces, but is not fully explicit about sublists. It
is natural to think that they, too, must be indented four spaces, but Markdown.pl does

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not require that. This is hardly a “corner case,” and divergences between
implementations on this issue often lead to surprises for users in real documents. (See
this comment by John Gruber.)

2. Is a blank line needed before a block quote or heading? Most implementations do not
require the blank line. However, this can lead to unexpected results in hard-wrapped
text, and also to ambiguities in parsing (note that some implementations put the
heading inside the blockquote, while others do not). (John Gruber has also spoken in
favor of requiring the blank lines.)

3. Is a blank line needed before an indented code block? (Markdown.pl requires it, but
this is not mentioned in the documentation, and some implementations do not require
it.)

paragraph
code?

4. What is the exact rule for determining when list items get wrapped in <p> tags? Can a
list be partially “loose” and partially “tight”? What should we do with a list like this?

1. one

2. two
3. three

Or this?

1. one
- a

- b
2. two

(There are some relevant comments by John Gruber here.)

5. Can list markers be indented? Can ordered list markers be right-aligned?

8. item 1
9. item 2
10. item 2a

6. Is this one list with a thematic break in its second item, or two lists separated by a
thematic break?

* a
* * * * *
* b

7. When list markers change from numbers to bullets, do we have two lists or one? (The
Markdown syntax description suggests two, but the perl scripts and many other
implementations produce one.)

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1. fee
2. fie
- foe
- fum

8. What are the precedence rules for the markers of inline structure? For example, is the
following a valid link, or does the code span take precedence ?

[a backtick (`)](/url) and [another backtick (`)](/url).

9. What are the precedence rules for markers of emphasis and strong emphasis? For
example, how should the following be parsed?

*foo *bar* baz*

10. What are the precedence rules between block-level and inline-level structure? For
example, how should the following be parsed?

- `a long code span can contain a hyphen like this

- and it can screw things up`

11. Can list items include section headings? (Markdown.pl does not allow this, but does
allow blockquotes to include headings.)

- # Heading

12. Can list items be empty?

* a
*
* b

13. Can link references be defined inside block quotes or list items?

> Blockquote [foo].

>
> [foo]: /url

14. If there are multiple definitions for the same reference, which takes precedence?

[foo]: /url1
[foo]: /url2

[foo][]

In the absence of a spec, early implementers consulted Markdown.pl to resolve these

ambiguities. But Markdown.pl was quite buggy, and gave manifestly bad results in many cases,
so it was not a satisfactory replacement for a spec.

Because there is no unambiguous spec, implementations have diverged considerably. As a

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result, users are often surprised to find that a document that renders one way on one system
(say, a GitHub wiki) renders differently on another (say, converting to docbook using pandoc).
To make matters worse, because nothing in Markdown counts as a “syntax error,” the
divergence often isn’t discovered right away.

1.4 About �is document ▲

This document attempts to specify Markdown syntax unambiguously. It contains many
examples with side-by-side Markdown and HTML. These are intended to double as conformance
tests. An accompanying script spec_tests.py can be used to run the tests against any
Markdown program:

python test/spec_tests.py --spec spec.txt --program PROGRAM

Since this document describes how Markdown is to be parsed into an abstract syntax tree, it
would have made sense to use an abstract representation of the syntax tree instead of HTML.
But HTML is capable of representing the structural distinctions we need to make, and the
choice of HTML for the tests makes it possible to run the tests against an implementation
without writing an abstract syntax tree renderer.

This document is generated from a text file, spec.txt, written in Markdown with a small
extension for the side-by-side tests. The script tools/makespec.py can be used to convert
spec.txt into HTML or CommonMark (which can then be converted into other formats).

In the examples, the → character is used to represent tabs.

2 P�eliminaries
2.1 Characters and lines ▲
Any sequence of characters is a valid CommonMark document.

A character is a Unicode code point. Although some code points (for example, combining
accents) do not correspond to characters in an intuitive sense, all code points count as
characters for purposes of this spec.

This spec does not specify an encoding; it thinks of lines as composed of characters rather
than bytes. A conforming parser may be limited to a certain encoding.

A line is a sequence of zero or more characters other than newline (U+000A) or carriage
return (U+000D), followed by a line ending or by the end of file.

A line ending is a newline (U+000A), a carriage return (U+000D) not followed by a newline, or a
carriage return and a following newline.

A line containing no characters, or a line containing only spaces (U+0020) or tabs (U+0009),
is called a blank line.

The following definitions of character classes will be used in this spec:

A whitespace character is a space (U+0020), tab (U+0009), newline (U+000A), line tabulation
(U+000B), form feed (U+000C), or carriage return (U+000D).

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Whitespace is a sequence of one or more whitespace characters.

A Unicode whitespace character is any code point in the Unicode Zs general category, or a tab
(U+0009), carriage return (U+000D), newline (U+000A), or form feed (U+000C).

Unicode whitespace is a sequence of one or more Unicode whitespace characters.

A space is U+0020.

A non-whitespace character is any character that is not a whitespace character.

An ASCII punctuation character is !, ", #, $, %, &, ', (, ), *, +, ,, -, ., / (U+0021–2F), :, ;, <, =, >, ?, @

(U+003A–0040), [, \, ], ^, _, ` (U+005B–0060), {, |, }, or ~ (U+007B–007E).

A punctuation character is an ASCII punctuation character or anything in the general Unicode

categories Pc, Pd, Pe, Pf, Pi, Po, or Ps.

2.2 Tabs ▲
Tabs in lines are not expanded to spaces. However, in contexts where whitespace helps to
define block structure, tabs behave as if they were replaced by spaces with a tab stop of 4
characters.

Thus, for example, a tab can be used instead of four spaces in an indented code block. (Note,
however, that internal tabs are passed through as literal tabs, not expanded to spaces.)

Example 1

→foo→baz→→bim <pre><code>foo→baz→→bim
</code></pre>

Example 2

··→foo→baz→→bim <pre><code>foo→baz→→bim
</code></pre>

Example 3

····a→a <pre><code>a→a
····ὐ→a ὐ→a
</code></pre>

In the following example, a continuation paragraph of a list item is indented with a tab; this
has exactly the same effect as indentation with four spaces would:

Example 4

··- ·foo <ul>

<li>
→bar <p>foo</p>
<p>bar</p>
</li>
</ul>

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Example 5

- ·foo <ul>
<li>
→→bar <p>foo</p>
<pre><code> ··bar
</code></pre>
</li>
</ul>

Normally the > that begins a block quote may be followed optionally by a space, which is not
considered part of the content. In the following case > is followed by a tab, which is treated
as if it were expanded into three spaces. Since one of these spaces is considered part of the
delimiter, foo is considered to be indented six spaces inside the block quote context, so we
get an indented code block starting with two spaces.

Example 6

>→→foo <blockquote>
<pre><code> ··foo
</code></pre>
</blockquote>

Example 7

-→→foo <ul>
<li>
<pre><code> ··foo
</code></pre>
</li>
</ul>

Example 8

····foo <pre><code>foo
→bar bar
</code></pre>

Example 9

·- ·foo <ul>
···- ·bar <li>foo
→ ·- ·baz <ul>
<li>bar
<ul>
<li>baz</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

Example 10

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#→Foo <h1>Foo</h1>

Example 11

*→*→*→ <hr ·/>

2.3 Insecure characters ▲

For security reasons, the Unicode character U+0000 must be replaced with the REPLACEMENT
CHARACTER (U+FFFD).

3 Blocks and inlines

We can think of a document as a sequence of blocks—structural elements like paragraphs,
block quotations, lists, headings, rules, and code blocks. Some blocks (like block quotes and
list items) contain other blocks; others (like headings and paragraphs) contain inline content
—text, links, emphasized text, images, code spans, and so on.

3.1 P�ecedence ▲
Indicators of block structure always take precedence over indicators of inline structure. So,
for example, the following is a list with two items, not a list with one item containing a code
span:

Example 12

- ·`one <ul>
- ·two` <li>`one</li>
<li>two`</li>
</ul>

This means that parsing can proceed in two steps: first, the block structure of the document
can be discerned; second, text lines inside paragraphs, headings, and other block constructs
can be parsed for inline structure. The second step requires information about link
reference definitions that will be available only at the end of the first step. Note that the
first step requires processing lines in sequence, but the second can be parallelized, since the
inline parsing of one block element does not affect the inline parsing of any other.

3.2 Container blocks and leaf blocks ▲

We can divide blocks into two types: container blocks, which can contain other blocks, and leaf
blocks, which cannot.

4 Leaf blocks
This section describes the different kinds of leaf block that make up a Markdown document.

4.1 Thematic �eaks ▲

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A line consisting of 0-3 spaces of indentation, followed by a sequence of three or more

matching -, _, or * characters, each followed optionally by any number of spaces or tabs,
forms a �ematic �eak.

Example 13

*** <hr ·/>

--- <hr ·/>
___ <hr ·/>

Wrong characters:

Example 14

+++ <p>+++</p>

Example 15

=== <p>===</p>

Not enough characters:

Example 16

-- <p>--
** **
__ __</p>

One to three spaces indent are allowed:

Example 17

·*** <hr ·/>

··*** <hr ·/>
···*** <hr ·/>

Four spaces is too many:

Example 18

····*** <pre><code>***
</code></pre>

Example 19

Foo <p>Foo
····*** ***</p>

More than three characters may be used:

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Example 20

_____________________________________ <hr ·/>

Spaces are allowed between the characters:

Example 21

·- ·- ·- <hr ·/>

Example 22

·** ··* ·** ·* ·** ·* ·** <hr ·/>

Example 23

- ·····- ······- ······- <hr ·/>

Spaces are allowed at the end:

Example 24

- ·- ·- ·- ···· <hr ·/>

However, no other characters may occur in the line:

Example 25

_ ·_ ·_ ·_ ·a <p>_ ·_ ·_ ·_ ·a</p>
<p>a------</p>
a------ <p>---a---</p>

---a---

It is required that all of the non-whitespace characters be the same. So, this is not a thematic
break:

Example 26

·*-* <p><em>-</em></p>

Thematic breaks do not need blank lines before or after:

Example 27

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- ·foo <ul>
*** <li>foo</li>
- ·bar </ul>
<hr ·/>
<ul>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>

Thematic breaks can interrupt a paragraph:

Example 28

Foo <p>Foo</p>
*** <hr ·/>
bar <p>bar</p>

If a line of dashes that meets the above conditions for being a thematic break could also be
interpreted as the underline of a setext heading, the interpretation as a setext heading takes
precedence. Thus, for example, this is a setext heading, not a paragraph followed by a
thematic break:

Example 29

Foo <h2>Foo</h2>
--- <p>bar</p>
bar

When both a thematic break and a list item are possible interpretations of a line, the thematic
break takes precedence:

Example 30

* ·Foo <ul>
* ·* ·* <li>Foo</li>
* ·Bar </ul>
<hr ·/>
<ul>
<li>Bar</li>
</ul>

If you want a thematic break in a list item, use a different bullet:

Example 31

- ·Foo <ul>
- ·* ·* ·* <li>Foo</li>
<li>
<hr ·/>
</li>
</ul>

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4.2 ATX headings ▲

An ATX heading consists of a string of characters, parsed as inline content, between an
opening sequence of 1–6 unescaped # characters and an optional closing sequence of any
number of unescaped # characters. The opening sequence of # characters must be followed
by a space or by the end of line. The optional closing sequence of #s must be preceded by a
space and may be followed by spaces only. The opening # character may be indented 0-3 spaces.
The raw contents of the heading are stripped of leading and trailing spaces before being
parsed as inline content. The heading level is equal to the number of # characters in the
opening sequence.

Simple headings:

Example 32

# ·foo <h1>foo</h1>
## ·foo <h2>foo</h2>
### ·foo <h3>foo</h3>
#### ·foo <h4>foo</h4>
##### ·foo <h5>foo</h5>
###### ·foo <h6>foo</h6>

More than six # characters is not a heading:

Example 33

####### ·foo <p>####### ·foo</p>

At least one space is required between the # characters and the heading’s contents, unless
the heading is empty. Note that many implementations currently do not require the space.
However, the space was required by the original ATX implementation, and it helps prevent
things like the following from being parsed as headings:

Example 34

#5 ·bolt <p>#5 ·bolt</p>

<p>#hashtag</p>
#hashtag

This is not a heading, because the first # is escaped:

Example 35

\## ·foo <p>## ·foo</p>

Contents are parsed as inlines:

Example 36

# ·foo ·*bar* ·\*baz\* <h1>foo ·<em>bar</em> ·*baz*</h1>

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Leading and trailing whitespace is ignored in parsing inline content:

Example 37

# ··················foo ·················· <h1>foo</h1>

One to three spaces indentation are allowed:

Example 38

·### ·foo <h3>foo</h3>

··## ·foo <h2>foo</h2>
···# ·foo <h1>foo</h1>

Four spaces are too much:

Example 39

····# ·foo <pre><code># ·foo

</code></pre>

Example 40

foo <p>foo
····# ·bar # ·bar</p>

A closing sequence of # characters is optional:

Example 41

## ·foo ·## <h2>foo</h2>

··### ···bar ····### <h3>bar</h3>

It need not be the same length as the opening sequence:

Example 42

# ·foo · <h1>foo</h1>
################################## <h5>foo</h5>
##### ·foo ·##

Spaces are allowed after the closing sequence:

Example 43

### ·foo ·### ····· <h3>foo</h3>

A sequence of # characters with anything but spaces following it is not a closing sequence,
but counts as part of the contents of the heading:

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Example 44

### ·foo ·### ·b <h3>foo ·### ·b</h3>

The closing sequence must be preceded by a space:

Example 45

# ·foo# <h1>foo#</h1>

Backslash-escaped # characters do not count as part of the closing sequence:

Example 46

### ·foo ·\### <h3>foo ·###</h3>

## ·foo ·#\## <h2>foo ·###</h2>
# ·foo ·\# <h1>foo ·#</h1>

ATX headings need not be separated from surrounding content by blank lines, and they can
interrupt paragraphs:

Example 47

**** <hr ·/>

## ·foo <h2>foo</h2>
**** <hr ·/>

Example 48

Foo ·bar <p>Foo ·bar</p>

# ·baz <h1>baz</h1>
Bar ·foo <p>Bar ·foo</p>

ATX headings can be empty:

Example 49

## · <h2></h2>
# <h1></h1>
### ·### <h3></h3>

4.3 Setext headings ▲

A setext heading consists of one or more lines of text, each containing at least one non-
whitespace character, with no more than 3 spaces indentation, followed by a setext heading
underline. The lines of text must be such that, were they not followed by the setext heading
underline, they would be interpreted as a paragraph: they cannot be interpretable as a code
fence, ATX heading, block quote, thematic break, list item, or HTML block.

A setext heading underline is a sequence of = characters or a sequence of - characters, with no

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more than 3 spaces indentation and any number of trailing spaces. If a line containing a single
- can be interpreted as an empty list items, it should be interpreted this way and not as a
setext heading underline.

The heading is a level 1 heading if = characters are used in the setext heading underline, and a
level 2 heading if - characters are used. The contents of the heading are the result of
parsing the preceding lines of text as CommonMark inline content.

In general, a setext heading need not be preceded or followed by a blank line. However, it
cannot interrupt a paragraph, so when a setext heading comes after a paragraph, a blank line
is needed between them.

Simple examples:

Example 50

Foo ·*bar* <h1>Foo ·<em>bar</em></h1>

========= <h2>Foo ·<em>bar</em></h2>

Foo ·*bar*
---------

The content of the header may span more than one line:

Example 51

Foo ·*bar <h1>Foo ·<em>bar

baz* baz</em></h1>
====

The contents are the result of parsing the headings’s raw content as inlines. The heading’s
raw content is formed by concatenating the lines and removing initial and final whitespace.

Example 52

··Foo ·*bar <h1>Foo ·<em>bar

baz*→ baz</em></h1>
====

The underlining can be any length:

Example 53

Foo <h2>Foo</h2>
------------------------- <h1>Foo</h1>

Foo
=

The heading content can be indented up to three spaces, and need not line up with the
underlining:

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Example 54

···Foo <h2>Foo</h2>
--- <h2>Foo</h2>
<h1>Foo</h1>
··Foo
-----

··Foo
··===

Four spaces indent is too much:

Example 55

····Foo <pre><code>Foo
····--- ---

····Foo Foo
--- </code></pre>
<hr ·/>

The setext heading underline can be indented up to three spaces, and may have trailing spaces:

Example 56

Foo <h2>Foo</h2>
···---- ······

Four spaces is too much:

Example 57

Foo <p>Foo
····--- ---</p>

The setext heading underline cannot contain internal spaces:

Example 58

Foo <p>Foo
= ·= = ·=</p>
<p>Foo</p>
Foo <hr ·/>
--- ·-

Trailing spaces in the content line do not cause a line break:

Example 59

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Foo ·· <h2>Foo</h2>
-----

Nor does a backslash at the end:

Example 60

Foo\ <h2>Foo\</h2>
----

Since indicators of block structure take precedence over indicators of inline structure, the
following are setext headings:

Example 61

`Foo <h2>`Foo</h2>
---- <p>`</p>
` <h2>&lt;a ·title=&quot;a ·lot</h2>
<p>of ·dashes&quot;/&gt;</p>
<a ·title="a ·lot
---
of ·dashes"/>

The setext heading underline cannot be a lazy continuation line in a list item or block quote:

Example 62

> ·Foo <blockquote>

--- <p>Foo</p>
</blockquote>
<hr ·/>

Example 63

> ·foo <blockquote>

bar <p>foo
=== bar
===</p>
</blockquote>

Example 64

- ·Foo <ul>
--- <li>Foo</li>
</ul>
<hr ·/>

A blank line is needed between a paragraph and a following setext heading, since otherwise
the paragraph becomes part of the heading’s content:

Example 65

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Foo <h2>Foo
Bar Bar</h2>
---

But in general a blank line is not required before or after setext headings:

Example 66

--- <hr ·/>

Foo <h2>Foo</h2>
--- <h2>Bar</h2>
Bar <p>Baz</p>
---
Baz

Setext headings cannot be empty:

Example 67

<p>====</p>
====

Setext heading text lines must not be interpretable as block constructs other than
paragraphs. So, the line of dashes in these examples gets interpreted as a thematic break:

Example 68

--- <hr ·/>

--- <hr ·/>

Example 69

- ·foo <ul>
----- <li>foo</li>
</ul>
<hr ·/>

Example 70

····foo <pre><code>foo
--- </code></pre>
<hr ·/>

Example 71

> ·foo <blockquote>

----- <p>foo</p>
</blockquote>
<hr ·/>

If you want a heading with > foo as its literal text, you can use backslash escapes:

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Example 72

\> ·foo <h2>&gt; ·foo</h2>

------

Compatibility note: Most existing Markdown implementations do not allow the text of setext
headings to span multiple lines. But there is no consensus about how to interpret

Foo
bar
---
baz

One can find four different interpretations:

1. paragraph “Foo”, heading “bar”, paragraph “baz”

2. paragraph “Foo bar”, thematic break, paragraph “baz”
3. paragraph “Foo bar — baz”
4. heading “Foo bar”, paragraph “baz”

We find interpretation 4 most natural, and interpretation 4 increases the expressive power of
CommonMark, by allowing multiline headings. Authors who want interpretation 1 can put a
blank line after the first paragraph:

Example 73

Foo <p>Foo</p>
<h2>bar</h2>
bar <p>baz</p>
---
baz

Authors who want interpretation 2 can put blank lines around the thematic break,

Example 74

Foo <p>Foo
bar bar</p>
<hr ·/>
--- <p>baz</p>

baz

or use a thematic break that cannot count as a setext heading underline, such as

Example 75

Foo <p>Foo
bar bar</p>
* ·* ·* <hr ·/>
baz <p>baz</p>

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Authors who want interpretation 3 can use backslash escapes:

Example 76

Foo <p>Foo
bar bar
\--- ---
baz baz</p>

4.4 Indented code blocks ▲

An indented code block is composed of one or more indented chunks separated by blank lines. An
indented chunk is a sequence of non-blank lines, each indented four or more spaces. The
contents of the code block are the literal contents of the lines, including trailing line
endings, minus four spaces of indentation. An indented code block has no info string.

An indented code block cannot interrupt a paragraph, so there must be a blank line between a
paragraph and a following indented code block. (A blank line is not needed, however, between
a code block and a following paragraph.)

Example 77

····a ·simple <pre><code>a ·simple

······indented ·code ·block ··indented ·code ·block
</code></pre>

If there is any ambiguity between an interpretation of indentation as a code block and as

indicating that material belongs to a list item, the list item interpretation takes precedence:

Example 78

··- ·foo <ul>

<li>
····bar <p>foo</p>
<p>bar</p>
</li>
</ul>

Example 79

1. ··foo <ol>
<li>
····- ·bar <p>foo</p>
<ul>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>

The contents of a code block are literal text, and do not get parsed as Markdown:

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Example 80

····<a/> <pre><code>&lt;a/&gt;
····*hi* *hi*

····- ·one - ·one

</code></pre>

Here we have three chunks separated by blank lines:

Example 81

····chunk1 <pre><code>chunk1

····chunk2 chunk2
··
·
·
····chunk3 chunk3
</code></pre>

Any initial spaces beyond four will be included in the content, even in interior blank lines:

Example 82

····chunk1 <pre><code>chunk1
······ ··
······chunk2 ··chunk2
</code></pre>

An indented code block cannot interrupt a paragraph. (This allows hanging indents and the
like.)

Example 83

Foo <p>Foo
····bar bar</p>

However, any non-blank line with fewer than four leading spaces ends the code block
immediately. So a paragraph may occur immediately after indented code:

Example 84

····foo <pre><code>foo
bar </code></pre>
<p>bar</p>

And indented code can occur immediately before and after other kinds of blocks:

Example 85

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# ·Heading <h1>Heading</h1>
····foo <pre><code>foo
Heading </code></pre>
------ <h2>Heading</h2>
····foo <pre><code>foo
---- </code></pre>
<hr ·/>

The first line can be indented more than four spaces:

Example 86

········foo <pre><code> ····foo

····bar bar
</code></pre>

Blank lines preceding or following an indented code block are not included in it:

Example 87

<pre><code>foo
···· </code></pre>
····foo
····

Trailing spaces are included in the code block’s content:

Example 88

····foo ·· <pre><code>foo ··
</code></pre>

4.5 Fenced code blocks ▲

A code fence is a sequence of at least three consecutive backtick characters (`) or tildes (~).
(Tildes and backticks cannot be mixed.) A fenced code block begins with a code fence, indented no
more than three spaces.

The line with the opening code fence may optionally contain some text following the code
fence; this is trimmed of leading and trailing whitespace and called the info string. If the info
string comes after a backtick fence, it may not contain any backtick characters. (The reason
for this restriction is that otherwise some inline code would be incorrectly interpreted as
the beginning of a fenced code block.)

The content of the code block consists of all subsequent lines, until a closing code fence of
the same type as the code block began with (backticks or tildes), and with at least as many
backticks or tildes as the opening code fence. If the leading code fence is indented N spaces,
then up to N spaces of indentation are removed from each line of the content (if present). (If a
content line is not indented, it is preserved unchanged. If it is indented less than N spaces, all
of the indentation is removed.)

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The closing code fence may be indented up to three spaces, and may be followed only by
spaces, which are ignored. If the end of the containing block (or document) is reached and no
closing code fence has been found, the code block contains all of the lines after the opening
code fence until the end of the containing block (or document). (An alternative spec would
require backtracking in the event that a closing code fence is not found. But this makes
parsing much less efficient, and there seems to be no real down side to the behavior
described here.)

A fenced code block may interrupt a paragraph, and does not require a blank line either
before or after.

The content of a code fence is treated as literal text, not parsed as inlines. The first word of
the info string is typically used to specify the language of the code sample, and rendered in
the class attribute of the code tag. However, this spec does not mandate any particular
treatment of the info string.

Here is a simple example with backticks:

Example 89

``` <pre><code>&lt;
< ·&gt;
·> </code></pre>
```

With tildes:

Example 90

~~~ <pre><code>&lt;
< ·&gt;
·> </code></pre>
~~~

Fewer than three backticks is not enough:

Example 91

`` <p><code>foo</code></p>
foo
``

The closing code fence must use the same character as the opening fence:

Example 92

``` <pre><code>aaa
aaa ~~~
~~~ </code></pre>
```

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Example 93

~~~ <pre><code>aaa
aaa ```
``` </code></pre>
~~~

The closing code fence must be at least as long as the opening fence:

Example 94

```` <pre><code>aaa
aaa ```
``` </code></pre>
``````

Example 95

~~~~ <pre><code>aaa
aaa ~~~
~~~ </code></pre>
~~~~

Unclosed code blocks are closed by the end of the document (or the enclosing block quote
or list item):

Example 96

``` <pre><code></code></pre>

Example 97

````` <pre><code>
```
``` aaa
aaa </code></pre>

Example 98

> ·``` <blockquote>

> ·aaa <pre><code>aaa
</code></pre>
bbb </blockquote>
<p>bbb</p>

A code block can have all empty lines as its content:

Example 99

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``` <pre><code>
··
·· </code></pre>
```

A code block can be empty:

Example 100

``` <pre><code></code></pre>
```

Fences can be indented. If the opening fence is indented, content lines will have equivalent
opening indentation removed, if present:

Example 101

·``` <pre><code>aaa
·aaa aaa
aaa </code></pre>
```

Example 102

··``` <pre><code>aaa
aaa aaa
··aaa aaa
aaa </code></pre>
··```

Example 103

···``` <pre><code>aaa
···aaa ·aaa
····aaa aaa
··aaa </code></pre>
···```

Four spaces indentation produces an indented code block:

Example 104

····``` <pre><code>```
····aaa aaa
····``` ```
</code></pre>

Closing fences may be indented by 0-3 spaces, and their indentation need not match that of the
opening fence:

Example 105

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``` <pre><code>aaa
aaa </code></pre>
··```

Example 106

···``` <pre><code>aaa
aaa </code></pre>
··```

This is not a closing fence, because it is indented 4 spaces:

Example 107

``` <pre><code>aaa
aaa ····```
····``` </code></pre>

Code fences (opening and closing) cannot contain internal spaces:

Example 108

``` ·``` <p><code> ·</code>

aaa aaa</p>

Example 109

~~~~~~ <pre><code>aaa
aaa ~~~ ·~~
~~~ ·~~ </code></pre>

Fenced code blocks can interrupt paragraphs, and can be followed directly by paragraphs,
without a blank line between:

Example 110

foo <p>foo</p>
``` <pre><code>bar
bar </code></pre>
``` <p>baz</p>
baz

Other blocks can also occur before and after fenced code blocks without an intervening
blank line:

Example 111

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foo <h2>foo</h2>
--- <pre><code>bar
~~~ </code></pre>
bar <h1>baz</h1>
~~~
# ·baz

An info string can be provided after the opening code fence. Although this spec doesn’t
mandate any particular treatment of the info string, the first word is typically used to
specify the language of the code block. In HTML output, the language is normally indicated by
adding a class to the code element consisting of language- followed by the language name.

Example 112

```ruby <pre><code ·class="language-ruby">def ·

def ·foo(x) foo(x)
··return ·3 ··return ·3
end end
``` </code></pre>

Example 113

~~~~ ····ruby ·startline=3 ·$%@#$ <pre><code ·class="language-ruby">def ·

def ·foo(x) foo(x)
··return ·3 ··return ·3
end end
~~~~~~~ </code></pre>

Example 114

````; <pre><code ·class="language-;"></code>

```` </pre>

Info strings for backtick code blocks cannot contain backticks:

Example 115

``` ·aa ·``` <p><code>aa</code>

foo foo</p>

Info strings for tilde code blocks can contain backticks and tildes:

Example 116

~~~ ·aa ·``` ·~~~ <pre><code ·class="language-aa">foo

foo </code></pre>
~~~

Closing code fences cannot have info strings:

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Example 117

``` <pre><code>``` ·aaa

``` ·aaa </code></pre>
```

4.6 HTML blocks ▲

An HTML block is a group of lines that is treated as raw HTML (and will not be escaped in HTML
output).

There are seven kinds of HTML block, which can be defined by their start and end conditions.
The block begins with a line that meets a start condition (after up to three spaces optional
indentation). It ends with the first subsequent line that meets a matching end condition, or the
last line of the document, or the last line of the container block containing the current
HTML block, if no line is encountered that meets the end condition. If the first line meets both
the start condition and the end condition, the block will contain just that line.

1. Start condition: line begins with the string <script, <pre, or <style (case-insensitive),
followed by whitespace, the string >, or the end of the line.
End condition: line contains an end tag </script>, </pre>, or </style> (case-
insensitive; it need not match the start tag).

2. Start condition: line begins with the string <!--.

End condition: line contains the string -->.

3. Start condition: line begins with the string <?.

End condition: line contains the string ?>.

4. Start condition: line begins with the string <! followed by an uppercase ASCII letter.
End condition: line contains the character >.

5. Start condition: line begins with the string <![CDATA[.

End condition: line contains the string ]]>.

6. Start condition: line begins the string < or </ followed by one of the strings (case-
insensitive) address, article, aside, base, basefont, blockquote, body, caption,
center, col, colgroup, dd, details, dialog, dir, div, dl, dt, fieldset,
figcaption, figure, footer, form, frame, frameset, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, head,
header, hr, html, iframe, legend, li, link, main, menu, menuitem, nav, noframes,
ol, optgroup, option, p, param, section, source, summary, table, tbody, td, tfoot,
th, thead, title, tr, track, ul, followed by whitespace, the end of the line, the string
>, or the string />.
End condition: line is followed by a blank line.

7. Start condition: line begins with a complete open tag (with any tag name other than
script, style, or pre) or a complete closing tag, followed only by whitespace or the
end of the line.
End condition: line is followed by a blank line.

HTML blocks continue until they are closed by their appropriate end condition, or the last
line of the document or other container block. This means any HTML wi�in an HTML block that

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might otherwise be recognised as a start condition will be ignored by the parser and passed
through as-is, without changing the parser’s state.

For instance, <pre> within a HTML block started by <table> will not affect the parser state;
as the HTML block was started in by start condition 6, it will end at any blank line. This can be
surprising:

Example 118

<table><tr><td> <table><tr><td>
<pre> <pre>
**Hello**, **Hello**,
<p><em>world</em>.
_world_. </pre></p>
</pre> </td></tr></table>
</td></tr></table>

In this case, the HTML block is terminated by the newline — the **Hello** text remains
verbatim — and regular parsing resumes, with a paragraph, emphasised world and inline and
block HTML following.

All types of HTML blocks except type 7 may interrupt a paragraph. Blocks of type 7 may not
interrupt a paragraph. (This restriction is intended to prevent unwanted interpretation of
long tags inside a wrapped paragraph as starting HTML blocks.)

Some simple examples follow. Here are some basic HTML blocks of type 6:

Example 119

<table> <table>
··<tr> ··<tr>
····<td> ····<td>
···········hi ···········hi
····</td> ····</td>
··</tr> ··</tr>
</table> </table>
<p>okay.</p>
okay.

Example 120

·<div> ·<div>
··*hello* ··*hello*
·········<foo><a> ·········<foo><a>

A block can also start with a closing tag:

Example 121

</div> </div>
*foo* *foo*

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Here we have two HTML blocks with a Markdown paragraph between them:

Example 122

<DIV ·CLASS="foo"> <DIV ·CLASS="foo">

<p><em>Markdown</em></p>
*Markdown* </DIV>

</DIV>

The tag on the first line can be partial, as long as it is split where there would be whitespace:

Example 123

<div ·id="foo" <div ·id="foo"

··class="bar"> ··class="bar">
</div> </div>

Example 124

<div ·id="foo" ·class="bar <div ·id="foo" ·class="bar

··baz"> ··baz">
</div> </div>

An open tag need not be closed:

Example 125

<div> <div>
*foo* *foo*
<p><em>bar</em></p>
*bar*

A partial tag need not even be completed (garbage in, garbage out):

Example 126

<div ·id="foo" <div ·id="foo"

*hi* *hi*

Example 127

<div ·class <div ·class

foo foo

The initial tag doesn’t even need to be a valid tag, as long as it starts like one:

Example 128

<div ·*???-&&&-<--- <div ·*???-&&&-<---

*foo* *foo*

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In type 6 blocks, the initial tag need not be on a line by itself:

Example 129

<div><a ·href="bar">*foo*</a></div> <div><a ·href="bar">*foo*</a></div>

Example 130

<table><tr><td> <table><tr><td>
foo foo
</td></tr></table> </td></tr></table>

Everything until the next blank line or end of document gets included in the HTML block. So,
in the following example, what looks like a Markdown code block is actually part of the HTML
block, which continues until a blank line or the end of the document is reached:

Example 131

<div></div> <div></div>
``` ·c ``` ·c
int ·x ·= ·33; int ·x ·= ·33;
``` ```

To start an HTML block with a tag that is not in the list of block-level tags in (6), you must put
the tag by itself on the first line (and it must be complete):

Example 132

<a ·href="foo"> <a ·href="foo">

*bar* *bar*
</a> </a>

In type 7 blocks, the tag name can be anything:

Example 133

<Warning> <Warning>
*bar* *bar*
</Warning> </Warning>

Example 134

<i ·class="foo"> <i ·class="foo">

*bar* *bar*
</i> </i>

Example 135

</ins> </ins>
*bar* *bar*

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These rules are designed to allow us to work with tags that can function as either block-
level or inline-level tags. The <del> tag is a nice example. We can surround content with
<del> tags in three different ways. In this case, we get a raw HTML block, because the <del>
tag is on a line by itself:

Example 136

<del> <del>
*foo* *foo*
</del> </del>

In this case, we get a raw HTML block that just includes the <del> tag (because it ends with
the following blank line). So the contents get interpreted as CommonMark:

Example 137

<del> <del>
<p><em>foo</em></p>
*foo* </del>

</del>

Finally, in this case, the <del> tags are interpreted as raw HTML inside the CommonMark
paragraph. (Because the tag is not on a line by itself, we get inline HTML rather than an HTML
block.)

Example 138

<del>*foo*</del> <p><del><em>foo</em></del></p>

HTML tags designed to contain literal content (script, style, pre), comments, processing
instructions, and declarations are treated somewhat differently. Instead of ending at the
first blank line, these blocks end at the first line containing a corresponding end tag. As a
result, these blocks can contain blank lines:

A pre tag (type 1):

Example 139

<pre ·language="haskell"><code> <pre ·language="haskell"><code>

import ·Text.HTML.TagSoup import ·Text.HTML.TagSoup

main ·:: ·IO ·() main ·:: ·IO ·()

main ·= ·print ·$ ·parseTags ·tags main ·= ·print ·$ ·parseTags ·tags
</code></pre> </code></pre>
okay <p>okay</p>

A script tag (type 1):

Example 140

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<script ·type="text/javascript"> <script ·type="text/javascript">

// ·JavaScript ·example // ·JavaScript ·example

document.getElementById("demo").innerH document.getElementById("demo").innerH
TML ·= ·"Hello ·JavaScript!"; TML ·= ·"Hello ·JavaScript!";
</script> </script>
okay <p>okay</p>

A style tag (type 1):

Example 141

<style <style
··type="text/css"> ··type="text/css">
h1 ·{color:red;} h1 ·{color:red;}

p ·{color:blue;} p ·{color:blue;}
</style> </style>
okay <p>okay</p>

If there is no matching end tag, the block will end at the end of the document (or the
enclosing block quote or list item):

Example 142

<style <style
··type="text/css"> ··type="text/css">

foo foo

Example 143

> ·<div> <blockquote>

> ·foo <div>
foo
bar </blockquote>
<p>bar</p>

Example 144

- ·<div> <ul>
- ·foo <li>
<div>
</li>
<li>foo</li>
</ul>

The end tag can occur on the same line as the start tag:

Example 145

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<style>p{color:red;}</style> <style>p{color:red;}</style>
*foo* <p><em>foo</em></p>

Example 146

<!-- ·foo ·-->*bar* <!-- ·foo ·-->*bar*

*baz* <p><em>baz</em></p>

Note that anything on the last line after the end tag will be included in the HTML block:

Example 147

<script> <script>
foo foo
</script>1. ·*bar* </script>1. ·*bar*

A comment (type 2):

Example 148

<!-- ·Foo <!-- ·Foo

bar bar
···baz ·--> ···baz ·-->
okay <p>okay</p>

A processing instruction (type 3):

Example 149

<?php <?php

··echo ·'>'; ··echo ·'>';

?> ?>
okay <p>okay</p>

A declaration (type 4):

Example 150

<!DOCTYPE ·html> <!DOCTYPE ·html>

CDATA (type 5):

Example 151

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<![CDATA[ <![CDATA[
function ·matchwo(a,b) function ·matchwo(a,b)
{ {
··if ·(a ·< ·b ·&& ·a ·< ·0) ·then ·{ ··if ·(a ·< ·b ·&& ·a ·< ·0) ·then ·{
····return ·1; ····return ·1;

··} ·else ·{ ··} ·else ·{

····return ·0; ····return ·0;

··} ··}
} }
]]> ]]>
okay <p>okay</p>

The opening tag can be indented 1-3 spaces, but not 4:

Example 152

··<!-- ·foo ·--> ··<!-- ·foo ·-->

<pre><code>&lt;!-- ·foo ·--&gt;
····<!-- ·foo ·--> </code></pre>

Example 153

··<div> ··<div>
<pre><code>&lt;div&gt;
····<div> </code></pre>

An HTML block of types 1–6 can interrupt a paragraph, and need not be preceded by a blank
line.

Example 154

Foo <p>Foo</p>
<div> <div>
bar bar
</div> </div>

However, a following blank line is needed, except at the end of a document, and except for
blocks of types 1–5, above:

Example 155

<div> <div>
bar bar
</div> </div>
*foo* *foo*

HTML blocks of type 7 cannot interrupt a paragraph:

Example 156

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Foo <p>Foo
<a ·href="bar"> <a ·href="bar">
baz baz</p>

This rule differs from John Gruber’s original Markdown syntax specification, which says:

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.

In some ways Gruber’s rule is more restrictive than the one given here:

• It requires that an HTML block be preceded by a blank line.

• It does not allow the start tag to be indented.
• It requires a matching end tag, which it also does not allow to be indented.

Most Markdown implementations (including some of Gruber’s own) do not respect all of
these restrictions.

There is one respect, however, in which Gruber’s rule is more liberal than the one given here,
since it allows blank lines to occur inside an HTML block. There are two reasons for
disallowing them here. First, it removes the need to parse balanced tags, which is expensive
and can require backtracking from the end of the document if no matching end tag is found.
Second, it provides a very simple and flexible way of including Markdown content inside HTML
tags: simply separate the Markdown from the HTML using blank lines:

Compare:

Example 157

<div> <div>
<p><em>Emphasized</em> ·text.</p>
*Emphasized* ·text. </div>

</div>

Example 158

<div> <div>
*Emphasized* ·text. *Emphasized* ·text.
</div> </div>

Some Markdown implementations have adopted a convention of interpreting content inside

tags as text if the open tag has the attribute markdown=1. The rule given above seems a
simpler and more elegant way of achieving the same expressive power, which is also much
simpler to parse.

The main potential drawback is that one can no longer paste HTML blocks into Markdown
documents with 100% reliability. However, in most cases this will work fine, because the
blank lines in HTML are usually followed by HTML block tags. For example:

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Example 159

<table> <table>
<tr>
<tr> <td>
Hi
<td> </td>
Hi </tr>
</td> </table>

</tr>

</table>

There are problems, however, if the inner tags are indented and separated by spaces, as then
they will be interpreted as an indented code block:

Example 160

<table> <table>
··<tr>
··<tr> <pre><code>&lt;td&gt;
··Hi
····<td> &lt;/td&gt;
······Hi </code></pre>
····</td> ··</tr>
</table>
··</tr>

</table>

Fortunately, blank lines are usually not necessary and can be deleted. The exception is inside
<pre> tags, but as described above, raw HTML blocks starting with <pre> can contain blank
lines.

4.7 Link reference definitions ▲

A link reference definition consists of a link label, indented up to three spaces, followed by a
colon (:), optional whitespace (including up to one line ending), a link destination, optional
whitespace (including up to one line ending), and an optional link title, which if it is present
must be separated from the link destination by whitespace. No further non-whitespace
characters may occur on the line.

A link reference definition does not correspond to a structural element of a document.

Instead, it defines a label which can be used in reference links and reference-style images
elsewhere in the document. Link reference definitions can come either before or after the
links that use them.

Example 161

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[foo]: ·/url ·"title" <p><a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">foo</a></p>
[foo]

Example 162

···[foo]: · <p><a ·href="/url" ·title="the ·

······/url ·· title">foo</a></p>
···········'the ·title' ··

[foo]

Example 163

[Foo*bar\]]:my_(url) ·'title ·(with · <p><a ·href="my_(url)" ·title="title ·

parens)' (with ·parens)">Foo*bar]</a></p>

[Foo*bar\]]

Example 164

[Foo ·bar]: <p><a ·href="my%20url" ·

<my ·url> title="title">Foo ·bar</a></p>
'title'

[Foo ·bar]

The title may extend over multiple lines:

Example 165

[foo]: ·/url ·' <p><a ·href="/url" ·title="

title title
line1 line1
line2 line2
' ">foo</a></p>

[foo]

However, it may not contain a blank line:

Example 166

[foo]: ·/url ·'title <p>[foo]: ·/url ·'title</p>

<p>with ·blank ·line'</p>
with ·blank ·line' <p>[foo]</p>

[foo]

The title may be omitted:

Example 167

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[foo]: <p><a ·href="/url">foo</a></p>

/url

[foo]

The link destination may not be omitted:

Example 168

[foo]: <p>[foo]:</p>
<p>[foo]</p>
[foo]

However, an empty link destination may be specified using angle brackets:

Example 169

[foo]: ·<> <p><a ·href="">foo</a></p>

[foo]

The title must be separated from the link destination by whitespace:

Example 170

[foo]: ·<bar>(baz) <p>[foo]: ·<bar>(baz)</p>

<p>[foo]</p>
[foo]

Both title and destination can contain backslash escapes and literal backslashes:

Example 171

[foo]: ·/url\bar\*baz ·"foo\"bar\baz" <p><a ·href="/url%5Cbar*baz" ·

title="foo&quot;bar\baz">foo</a></p>
[foo]

A link can come before its corresponding definition:

Example 172

[foo] <p><a ·href="url">foo</a></p>

[foo]: ·url

If there are several matching definitions, the first one takes precedence:

Example 173

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[foo] <p><a ·href="first">foo</a></p>

[foo]: ·first
[foo]: ·second

As noted in the section on Links, matching of labels is case-insensitive (see matches).

Example 174

[FOO]: ·/url <p><a ·href="/url">Foo</a></p>

[Foo]

Example 175

[ΑΓΩ]: ·/φου <p><a ·href="/%CF%86%CE%BF

%CF%85">αγω</a></p>
[αγω]

Here is a link reference definition with no corresponding link. It contributes nothing to the
document.

Example 176

[foo]: ·/url

Here is another one:

Example 177

[ <p>bar</p>
foo
]: ·/url
bar

This is not a link reference definition, because there are non-whitespace characters after the
title:

Example 178

[foo]: ·/url ·"title" ·ok <p>[foo]: ·/url ·&quot;title&quot; ·

ok</p>

This is a link reference definition, but it has no title:

Example 179

[foo]: ·/url <p>&quot;title&quot; ·ok</p>

"title" ·ok

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This is not a link reference definition, because it is indented four spaces:

Example 180

····[foo]: ·/url ·"title" <pre><code>[foo]: ·/url ·

&quot;title&quot;
[foo] </code></pre>
<p>[foo]</p>

This is not a link reference definition, because it occurs inside a code block:

Example 181

``` <pre><code>[foo]: ·/url

[foo]: ·/url </code></pre>
``` <p>[foo]</p>

[foo]

A link reference definition cannot interrupt a paragraph.

Example 182

Foo <p>Foo
[bar]: ·/baz [bar]: ·/baz</p>
<p>[bar]</p>
[bar]

However, it can directly follow other block elements, such as headings and thematic breaks,
and it need not be followed by a blank line.

Example 183

# ·[Foo] <h1><a ·href="/url">Foo</a></h1>

[foo]: ·/url <blockquote>
> ·bar <p>bar</p>
</blockquote>

Example 184

[foo]: ·/url <h1>bar</h1>

bar <p><a ·href="/url">foo</a></p>
===
[foo]

Example 185

[foo]: ·/url <p>===

=== <a ·href="/url">foo</a></p>
[foo]

Several link reference definitions can occur one after another, without intervening blank

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lines.

Example 186

[foo]: ·/foo-url ·"foo" <p><a ·href="/foo-url" ·

[bar]: ·/bar-url title="foo">foo</a>,
··"bar" <a ·href="/bar-url" ·
[baz]: ·/baz-url title="bar">bar</a>,
<a ·href="/baz-url">baz</a></p>
[foo],
[bar],
[baz]

Link reference definitions can occur inside block containers, like lists and block quotations.
They affect the entire document, not just the container in which they are defined:

Example 187

[foo] <p><a ·href="/url">foo</a></p>

<blockquote>
> ·[foo]: ·/url </blockquote>

Whether something is a link reference definition is independent of whether the link reference
it defines is used in the document. Thus, for example, the following document contains just a
link reference definition, and no visible content:

Example 188

[foo]: ·/url

4.8 Paragraphs ▲
A sequence of non-blank lines that cannot be interpreted as other kinds of blocks forms a
paragraph. The contents of the paragraph are the result of parsing the paragraph’s raw
content as inlines. The paragraph’s raw content is formed by concatenating the lines and
removing initial and final whitespace.

A simple example with two paragraphs:

Example 189

aaa <p>aaa</p>
<p>bbb</p>
bbb

Paragraphs can contain multiple lines, but no blank lines:

Example 190

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aaa <p>aaa
bbb bbb</p>
<p>ccc
ccc ddd</p>
ddd

Multiple blank lines between paragraph have no effect:

Example 191

aaa <p>aaa</p>
<p>bbb</p>

bbb

Leading spaces are skipped:

Example 192

··aaa <p>aaa
·bbb bbb</p>

Lines after the first may be indented any amount, since indented code blocks cannot interrupt
paragraphs.

Example 193

aaa <p>aaa
·············bbb bbb
······································· ccc</p>
ccc

However, the first line may be indented at most three spaces, or an indented code block will
be triggered:

Example 194

···aaa <p>aaa
bbb bbb</p>

Example 195

····aaa <pre><code>aaa
bbb </code></pre>
<p>bbb</p>

Final spaces are stripped before inline parsing, so a paragraph that ends with two or more
spaces will not end with a hard line break:

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Example 196

aaa ····· <p>aaa<br ·/>

bbb ····· bbb</p>

4.9 Blank lines ▲

Blank lines between block-level elements are ignored, except for the role they play in
determining whether a list is tight or loose.

Blank lines at the beginning and end of the document are also ignored.

Example 197

·· <p>aaa</p>
<h1>aaa</h1>
aaa
··

# ·aaa

··

4.10 Tables (extension) ▲

GFM enables the table extension, where an additional leaf block type is available.

A table is an arrangement of data with rows and columns, consisting of a single header row, a
delimiter row separating the header from the data, and zero or more data rows.

Each row consists of cells containing arbitrary text, in which inlines are parsed, separated
by pipes (|). A leading and trailing pipe is also recommended for clarity of reading, and if
there’s otherwise parsing ambiguity. Spaces between pipes and cell content are trimmed.
Block-level elements cannot be inserted in a table.

The delimiter row consists of cells whose only content are hyphens (-), and optionally, a
leading or trailing colon (:), or both, to indicate left, right, or center alignment
respectively.

Example 198

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| ·foo ·| ·bar ·| <table>

| ·--- ·| ·--- ·| <thead>
| ·baz ·| ·bim ·| <tr>
<th>foo</th>
<th>bar</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>baz</td>
<td>bim</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Cells in one column don’t need to match length, though it’s easier to read if they are.
Likewise, use of leading and trailing pipes may be inconsistent:

Example 199

| ·abc ·| ·defghi ·| <table>

:-: ·| ·-----------: <thead>
bar ·| ·baz <tr>
<th ·align="center">abc</th>
<th ·align="right">defghi</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td ·align="center">bar</td>
<td ·align="right">baz</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Include a pipe in a cell’s content by escaping it, including inside other inline spans:

Example 200

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| ·f\|oo ··| <table>

| ·------ ·| <thead>
| ·b ·`\|` ·az ·| <tr>
| ·b ·**\|** ·im ·| <th>f|oo</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>b ·<code>|</code> ·az</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>b ·<strong>|</strong> ·im</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The table is broken at the first empty line, or beginning of another block-level structure:

Example 201

| ·abc ·| ·def ·| <table>

| ·--- ·| ·--- ·| <thead>
| ·bar ·| ·baz ·| <tr>
> ·bar <th>abc</th>
<th>def</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>bar</td>
<td>baz</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<blockquote>
<p>bar</p>
</blockquote>

Example 202

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| ·abc ·| ·def ·| <table>

| ·--- ·| ·--- ·| <thead>
| ·bar ·| ·baz ·| <tr>
bar <th>abc</th>
<th>def</th>
bar </tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>bar</td>
<td>baz</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>bar</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>bar</p>

The header row must match the delimiter row in the number of cells. If not, a table will not be
recognized:

Example 203

| ·abc ·| ·def ·| <p>| ·abc ·| ·def ·|

| ·--- ·| | ·--- ·|
| ·bar ·| | ·bar ·|</p>

The remainder of the table’s rows may vary in the number of cells. If there are a number of
cells fewer than the number of cells in the header row, empty cells are inserted. If there are
greater, the excess is ignored:

Example 204

| ·abc ·| ·def ·| <table>

| ·--- ·| ·--- ·| <thead>
| ·bar ·| <tr>
| ·bar ·| ·baz ·| ·boo ·| <th>abc</th>
<th>def</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>bar</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>bar</td>
<td>baz</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

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If there are no rows in the body, no <tbody> is generated in HTML output:

Example 205

| ·abc ·| ·def ·| <table>

| ·--- ·| ·--- ·| <thead>
<tr>
<th>abc</th>
<th>def</th>
</tr>
</thead>
</table>

5 Container blocks
A container block is a block that has other blocks as its contents. There are two basic kinds
of container blocks: block quotes and list items. Lists are meta-containers for list items.

We define the syntax for container blocks recursively. The general form of the definition is:

If X is a sequence of blocks, then the result of transforming X in such-and-such

a way is a container of type Y with these blocks as its content.

So, we explain what counts as a block quote or list item by explaining how these can be
generated from their contents. This should suffice to define the syntax, although it does not
give a recipe for parsing these constructions. (A recipe is provided below in the section
entitled A parsing strategy.)

5.1 Block quotes ▲

A block quote marker consists of 0-3 spaces of initial indent, plus (a) the character > together
with a following space, or (b) a single character > not followed by a space.

The following rules define block quotes:

1. Basic case. If a string of lines Ls constitute a sequence of blocks Bs, then the result of
prepending a block quote marker to the beginning of each line in Ls is a block quote
containing Bs.

2. Laziness. If a string of lines Ls constitute a block quote with contents Bs, then the
result of deleting the initial block quote marker from one or more lines in which the
next non-whitespace character after the block quote marker is paragraph
continuation text is a block quote with Bs as its content. Paragraph continuation text is text
that will be parsed as part of the content of a paragraph, but does not occur at the
beginning of the paragraph.

3. Consecutiveness. A document cannot contain two block quotes in a row unless there is a
blank line between them.

Nothing else counts as a block quote.

Here is a simple example:

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Example 206

> ·# ·Foo <blockquote>

> ·bar <h1>Foo</h1>
> ·baz <p>bar
baz</p>
</blockquote>

The spaces after the > characters can be omitted:

Example 207

># ·Foo <blockquote>

>bar <h1>Foo</h1>
> ·baz <p>bar
baz</p>
</blockquote>

The > characters can be indented 1-3 spaces:

Example 208

···> ·# ·Foo <blockquote>

···> ·bar <h1>Foo</h1>
·> ·baz <p>bar
baz</p>
</blockquote>

Four spaces gives us a code block:

Example 209

····> ·# ·Foo <pre><code>&gt; ·# ·Foo

····> ·bar &gt; ·bar
····> ·baz &gt; ·baz
</code></pre>

The Laziness clause allows us to omit the > before paragraph continuation text:

Example 210

> ·# ·Foo <blockquote>

> ·bar <h1>Foo</h1>
baz <p>bar
baz</p>
</blockquote>

A block quote can contain some lazy and some non-lazy continuation lines:

Example 211

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> ·bar <blockquote>

baz <p>bar
> ·foo baz
foo</p>
</blockquote>

Laziness only applies to lines that would have been continuations of paragraphs had they
been prepended with block quote markers. For example, the > cannot be omitted in the
second line of

> foo
> ---

without changing the meaning:

Example 212

> ·foo <blockquote>

--- <p>foo</p>
</blockquote>
<hr ·/>

Similarly, if we omit the > in the second line of

> - foo
> - bar

then the block quote ends after the first line:

Example 213

> ·- ·foo <blockquote>

- ·bar <ul>
<li>foo</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<ul>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>

For the same reason, we can’t omit the > in front of subsequent lines of an indented or
fenced code block:

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Example 214

> ·····foo <blockquote>

····bar <pre><code>foo
</code></pre>
</blockquote>
<pre><code>bar
</code></pre>

Example 215

> ·``` <blockquote>

foo <pre><code></code></pre>
``` </blockquote>
<p>foo</p>
<pre><code></code></pre>

Note that in the following case, we have a lazy continuation line:

Example 216

> ·foo <blockquote>

····- ·bar <p>foo
- ·bar</p>
</blockquote>

To see why, note that in

> foo
> - bar

the - bar is indented too far to start a list, and can’t be an indented code block because
indented code blocks cannot interrupt paragraphs, so it is paragraph continuation text.

A block quote can be empty:

Example 217

> <blockquote>
</blockquote>

Example 218

> <blockquote>
> ·· </blockquote>
>·

A block quote can have initial or final blank lines:

Example 219

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> <blockquote>
> ·foo <p>foo</p>
> ·· </blockquote>

A blank line always separates block quotes:

Example 220

> ·foo <blockquote>

<p>foo</p>
> ·bar </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>bar</p>
</blockquote>

(Most current Markdown implementations, including John Gruber’s original Markdown.pl,

will parse this example as a single block quote with two paragraphs. But it seems better to
allow the author to decide whether two block quotes or one are wanted.)

Consecutiveness means that if we put these block quotes together, we get a single block
quote:

Example 221

> ·foo <blockquote>

> ·bar <p>foo
bar</p>
</blockquote>

To get a block quote with two paragraphs, use:

Example 222

> ·foo <blockquote>

> <p>foo</p>
> ·bar <p>bar</p>
</blockquote>

Block quotes can interrupt paragraphs:

Example 223

foo <p>foo</p>
> ·bar <blockquote>
<p>bar</p>
</blockquote>

In general, blank lines are not needed before or after block quotes:

Example 224

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> ·aaa <blockquote>

*** <p>aaa</p>
> ·bbb </blockquote>
<hr ·/>
<blockquote>
<p>bbb</p>
</blockquote>

However, because of laziness, a blank line is needed between a block quote and a following
paragraph:

Example 225

> ·bar <blockquote>

baz <p>bar
baz</p>
</blockquote>

Example 226

> ·bar <blockquote>

<p>bar</p>
baz </blockquote>
<p>baz</p>

Example 227

> ·bar <blockquote>

> <p>bar</p>
baz </blockquote>
<p>baz</p>

It is a consequence of the Laziness rule that any number of initial >s may be omitted on a
continuation line of a nested block quote:

Example 228

> ·> ·> ·foo <blockquote>

bar <blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>foo
bar</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>

Example 229

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>>> ·foo <blockquote>

> ·bar <blockquote>
>>baz <blockquote>
<p>foo
bar
baz</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>

When including an indented code block in a block quote, remember that the block quote
marker includes both the > and a following space. So five spaces are needed after the >:

Example 230

> ·····code <blockquote>

<pre><code>code
> ····not ·code </code></pre>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>not ·code</p>
</blockquote>

5.2 List items ▲

A list marker is a bullet list marker or an ordered list marker.

A bu�et list marker is a -, +, or * character.

An �dered list marker is a sequence of 1–9 arabic digits (0-9), followed by either a . character
or a ) character. (The reason for the length limit is that with 10 digits we start seeing
integer overflows in some browsers.)

The following rules define list items:

1. Basic case. If a sequence of lines Ls constitute a sequence of blocks Bs starting with a

non-whitespace character, and M is a list marker of width W followed by 1 ≤ N ≤ 4
spaces, then the result of prepending M and the following spaces to the first line of
Ls, and indenting subsequent lines of Ls by W + N spaces, is a list item with Bs as its
contents. The type of the list item (bullet or ordered) is determined by the type of its
list marker. If the list item is ordered, then it is also assigned a start number, based on
the ordered list marker.

Exceptions:

1. When the first list item in a list interrupts a paragraph—that is, when it starts on
a line that would otherwise count as paragraph continuation text—then (a) the
lines Ls must not begin with a blank line, and (b) if the list item is ordered, the
start number must be 1.
2. If any line is a thematic break then that line is not a list item.

For example, let Ls be the lines

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Example 231

A ·paragraph <p>A ·paragraph

with ·two ·lines. with ·two ·lines.</p>
<pre><code>indented ·code
····indented ·code </code></pre>
<blockquote>
> ·A ·block ·quote. <p>A ·block ·quote.</p>
</blockquote>

And let M be the marker 1., and N = 2. Then rule #1 says that the following is an ordered list
item with start number 1, and the same contents as Ls:

Example 232

1. ··A ·paragraph <ol>

····with ·two ·lines. <li>
<p>A ·paragraph
········indented ·code with ·two ·lines.</p>
<pre><code>indented ·code
····> ·A ·block ·quote. </code></pre>
<blockquote>
<p>A ·block ·quote.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>

The most important thing to notice is that the position of the text after the list marker
determines how much indentation is needed in subsequent blocks in the list item. If the list
marker takes up two spaces, and there are three spaces between the list marker and the next
non-whitespace character, then blocks must be indented five spaces in order to fall under
the list item.

Here are some examples showing how far content must be indented to be put under the list
item:

Example 233

- ·one <ul>
<li>one</li>
·two </ul>
<p>two</p>

Example 234

- ·one <ul>
<li>
··two <p>one</p>
<p>two</p>
</li>
</ul>

Example 235

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·- ····one <ul>
<li>one</li>
·····two </ul>
<pre><code> ·two
</code></pre>

Example 236

·- ····one <ul>
<li>
······two <p>one</p>
<p>two</p>
</li>
</ul>

It is tempting to think of this in terms of columns: the continuation blocks must be indented
at least to the column of the first non-whitespace character after the list marker. However,
that is not quite right. The spaces after the list marker determine how much relative
indentation is needed. Which column this indentation reaches will depend on how the list item
is embedded in other constructions, as shown by this example:

Example 237

···> ·> ·1. ··one <blockquote>

>> <blockquote>
>> ·····two <ol>
<li>
<p>one</p>
<p>two</p>
</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>

Here two occurs in the same column as the list marker 1., but is actually contained in the
list item, because there is sufficient indentation after the last containing blockquote marker.

The converse is also possible. In the following example, the word two occurs far to the right
of the initial text of the list item, one, but it is not considered part of the list item, because it
is not indented far enough past the blockquote marker:

Example 238

>>- ·one <blockquote>

>> <blockquote>
··> ··> ·two <ul>
<li>one</li>
</ul>
<p>two</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>

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Note that at least one space is needed between the list marker and any following content, so
these are not list items:

Example 239

-one <p>-one</p>
<p>2.two</p>
2.two

A list item may contain blocks that are separated by more than one blank line.

Example 240

- ·foo <ul>
<li>
<p>foo</p>
··bar <p>bar</p>
</li>
</ul>

A list item may contain any kind of block:

Example 241

1. ··foo <ol>
<li>
····``` <p>foo</p>
····bar <pre><code>bar
····``` </code></pre>
<p>baz</p>
····baz <blockquote>
<p>bam</p>
····> ·bam </blockquote>
</li>
</ol>

A list item that contains an indented code block will preserve empty lines within the code
block verbatim.

Example 242

- ·Foo <ul>
<li>
······bar <p>Foo</p>
<pre><code>bar

······baz
baz
</code></pre>
</li>
</ul>

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Note that ordered list start numbers must be nine digits or less:

Example 243

123456789. ·ok <ol ·start="123456789">

<li>ok</li>
</ol>

Example 244

1234567890. ·not ·ok <p>1234567890. ·not ·ok</p>

A start number may begin with 0s:

Example 245

0. ·ok <ol ·start="0">

<li>ok</li>
</ol>

Example 246

003. ·ok <ol ·start="3">

<li>ok</li>
</ol>

A start number may not be negative:

Example 247

-1. ·not ·ok <p>-1. ·not ·ok</p>

2. Item starting wi� indented code. If a sequence of lines Ls constitute a sequence of blocks Bs
starting with an indented code block, and M is a list marker of width W followed by
one space, then the result of prepending M and the following space to the first line of
Ls, and indenting subsequent lines of Ls by W + 1 spaces, is a list item with Bs as its
contents. If a line is empty, then it need not be indented. The type of the list item (bullet
or ordered) is determined by the type of its list marker. If the list item is ordered, then
it is also assigned a start number, based on the ordered list marker.

An indented code block will have to be indented four spaces beyond the edge of the region
where text will be included in the list item. In the following case that is 6 spaces:

Example 248

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- ·foo <ul>
<li>
······bar <p>foo</p>
<pre><code>bar
</code></pre>
</li>
</ul>

And in this case it is 11 spaces:

Example 249

··10. ··foo <ol ·start="10">

<li>
···········bar <p>foo</p>
<pre><code>bar
</code></pre>
</li>
</ol>

If the first block in the list item is an indented code block, then by rule #2, the contents must
be indented one space after the list marker:

Example 250

····indented ·code <pre><code>indented ·code

</code></pre>
paragraph <p>paragraph</p>
<pre><code>more ·code
····more ·code </code></pre>

Example 251

1. ·····indented ·code <ol>

<li>
···paragraph <pre><code>indented ·code
</code></pre>
·······more ·code <p>paragraph</p>
<pre><code>more ·code
</code></pre>
</li>
</ol>

Note that an additional space indent is interpreted as space inside the code block:

Example 252

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1. ······indented ·code <ol>

<li>
···paragraph <pre><code> ·indented ·code
</code></pre>
·······more ·code <p>paragraph</p>
<pre><code>more ·code
</code></pre>
</li>
</ol>

Note that rules #1 and #2 only apply to two cases: (a) cases in which the lines to be included
in a list item begin with a non-whitespace character, and (b) cases in which they begin with an
indented code block. In a case like the following, where the first block begins with a three-
space indent, the rules do not allow us to form a list item by indenting the whole thing and
prepending a list marker:

Example 253

···foo <p>foo</p>
<p>bar</p>
bar

Example 254

- ····foo <ul>
<li>foo</li>
··bar </ul>
<p>bar</p>

This is not a significant restriction, because when a block begins with 1-3 spaces indent, the
indentation can always be removed without a change in interpretation, allowing rule #1 to be
applied. So, in the above case:

Example 255

- ··foo <ul>
<li>
···bar <p>foo</p>
<p>bar</p>
</li>
</ul>

3. Item starting wi� a blank line. If a sequence of lines Ls starting with a single blank line
constitute a (possibly empty) sequence of blocks Bs, not separated from each other by
more than one blank line, and M is a list marker of width W, then the result of
prepending M to the first line of Ls, and indenting subsequent lines of Ls by W + 1
spaces, is a list item with Bs as its contents. If a line is empty, then it need not be
indented. The type of the list item (bullet or ordered) is determined by the type of its
list marker. If the list item is ordered, then it is also assigned a start number, based on
the ordered list marker.

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Here are some list items that start with a blank line but are not empty:

Example 256

- <ul>
··foo <li>foo</li>
- <li>
··``` <pre><code>bar
··bar </code></pre>
··``` </li>
- <li>
······baz <pre><code>baz
</code></pre>
</li>
</ul>

When the list item starts with a blank line, the number of spaces following the list marker
doesn’t change the required indentation:

Example 257

- ··· <ul>
··foo <li>foo</li>
</ul>

A list item can begin with at most one blank line. In the following example, foo is not part of
the list item:

Example 258

- <ul>
<li></li>
··foo </ul>
<p>foo</p>

Here is an empty bullet list item:

Example 259

- ·foo <ul>
- <li>foo</li>
- ·bar <li></li>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>

It does not matter whether there are spaces following the list marker:

Example 260

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- ·foo <ul>
- ··· <li>foo</li>
- ·bar <li></li>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>

Here is an empty ordered list item:

Example 261

1. ·foo <ol>
2. <li>foo</li>
3. ·bar <li></li>
<li>bar</li>
</ol>

A list may start or end with an empty list item:

Example 262

* <ul>
<li></li>
</ul>

However, an empty list item cannot interrupt a paragraph:

Example 263

foo <p>foo
* *</p>
<p>foo
foo 1.</p>
1.

4. Indentation. If a sequence of lines Ls constitutes a list item according to rule #1, #2, or
#3, then the result of indenting each line of Ls by 1-3 spaces (the same for each line)
also constitutes a list item with the same contents and attributes. If a line is empty,
then it need not be indented.

Indented one space:

Example 264

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·1. ··A ·paragraph <ol>

·····with ·two ·lines. <li>
<p>A ·paragraph
·········indented ·code with ·two ·lines.</p>
<pre><code>indented ·code
·····> ·A ·block ·quote. </code></pre>
<blockquote>
<p>A ·block ·quote.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>

Indented two spaces:

Example 265

··1. ··A ·paragraph <ol>

······with ·two ·lines. <li>
<p>A ·paragraph
··········indented ·code with ·two ·lines.</p>
<pre><code>indented ·code
······> ·A ·block ·quote. </code></pre>
<blockquote>
<p>A ·block ·quote.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>

Indented three spaces:

Example 266

···1. ··A ·paragraph <ol>

·······with ·two ·lines. <li>
<p>A ·paragraph
···········indented ·code with ·two ·lines.</p>
<pre><code>indented ·code
·······> ·A ·block ·quote. </code></pre>
<blockquote>
<p>A ·block ·quote.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>

Four spaces indent gives a code block:

Example 267

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····1. ··A ·paragraph <pre><code>1. ··A ·paragraph

········with ·two ·lines. ····with ·two ·lines.

············indented ·code ········indented ·code

········> ·A ·block ·quote. ····&gt; ·A ·block ·quote.

</code></pre>

5. Laziness. If a string of lines Ls constitute a list item with contents Bs, then the result of
deleting some or all of the indentation from one or more lines in which the next non-
whitespace character after the indentation is paragraph continuation text is a list item
with the same contents and attributes. The unindented lines are called lazy continuation
lines.

Here is an example with lazy continuation lines:

Example 268

··1. ··A ·paragraph <ol>

with ·two ·lines. <li>
<p>A ·paragraph
··········indented ·code with ·two ·lines.</p>
<pre><code>indented ·code
······> ·A ·block ·quote. </code></pre>
<blockquote>
<p>A ·block ·quote.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>

Indentation can be partially deleted:

Example 269

··1. ··A ·paragraph <ol>

····with ·two ·lines. <li>A ·paragraph
with ·two ·lines.</li>
</ol>

These examples show how laziness can work in nested structures:

Example 270

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> ·1. ·> ·Blockquote <blockquote>

continued ·here. <ol>
<li>
<blockquote>
<p>Blockquote
continued ·here.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>

Example 271

> ·1. ·> ·Blockquote <blockquote>

> ·continued ·here. <ol>
<li>
<blockquote>
<p>Blockquote
continued ·here.</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>

6. That’s a�. Nothing that is not counted as a list item by rules #1–5 counts as a list item.

The rules for sublists follow from the general rules above. A sublist must be indented the
same number of spaces a paragraph would need to be in order to be included in the list item.

So, in this case we need two spaces indent:

Example 272

- ·foo <ul>
··- ·bar <li>foo
····- ·baz <ul>
······- ·boo <li>bar
<ul>
<li>baz
<ul>
<li>boo</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

One is not enough:

Example 273

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- ·foo <ul>
·- ·bar <li>foo</li>
··- ·baz <li>bar</li>
···- ·boo <li>baz</li>
<li>boo</li>
</ul>

Here we need four, because the list marker is wider:

Example 274

10) ·foo <ol ·start="10">

····- ·bar <li>foo
<ul>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>

Three is not enough:

Example 275

10) ·foo <ol ·start="10">

···- ·bar <li>foo</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>

A list may be the first block in a list item:

Example 276

- ·- ·foo <ul>
<li>
<ul>
<li>foo</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

Example 277

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1. ·- ·2. ·foo <ol>

<li>
<ul>
<li>
<ol ·start="2">
<li>foo</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>

A list item can contain a heading:

Example 278

- ·# ·Foo <ul>
- ·Bar <li>
··--- <h1>Foo</h1>
··baz </li>
<li>
<h2>Bar</h2>
baz</li>
</ul>

5.2.1 Motivation

John Gruber’s Markdown spec says the following about list items:

1. “List markers typically start at the left margin, but may be indented by up to three
spaces. List markers must be followed by one or more spaces or a tab.”

2. “To make lists look nice, you can wrap items with hanging indents…. But if you don’t
want to, you don’t have to.”

3. “List items may consist of multiple paragraphs. Each subsequent paragraph in a list
item must be indented by either 4 spaces or one tab.”

4. “It looks nice if you indent every line of the subsequent paragraphs, but here again,
Markdown will allow you to be lazy.”

5. “To put a blockquote within a list item, the blockquote’s > delimiters need to be
indented.”

6. “To put a code block within a list item, the code block needs to be indented twice — 8
spaces or two tabs.”

These rules specify that a paragraph under a list item must be indented four spaces
(presumably, from the left margin, rather than the start of the list marker, but this is not
said), and that code under a list item must be indented eight spaces instead of the usual four.
They also say that a block quote must be indented, but not by how much; however, the
example given has four spaces indentation. Although nothing is said about other kinds of

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block-level content, it is certainly reasonable to infer that all block elements under a list
item, including other lists, must be indented four spaces. This principle has been called the
four-space rule.

The four-space rule is clear and principled, and if the reference implementation Markdown.pl
had followed it, it probably would have become the standard. However, Markdown.pl
allowed paragraphs and sublists to start with only two spaces indentation, at least on the
outer level. Worse, its behavior was inconsistent: a sublist of an outer-level list needed two
spaces indentation, but a sublist of this sublist needed three spaces. It is not surprising,
then, that different implementations of Markdown have developed very different rules for
determining what comes under a list item. (Pandoc and python-Markdown, for example, stuck
with Gruber’s syntax description and the four-space rule, while discount, redcarpet, marked,
PHP Markdown, and others followed Markdown.pl’s behavior more closely.)

Unfortunately, given the divergences between implementations, there is no way to give a spec
for list items that will be guaranteed not to break any existing documents. However, the spec
given here should correctly handle lists formatted with either the four-space rule or the
more forgiving Markdown.pl behavior, provided they are laid out in a way that is natural for
a human to read.

The strategy here is to let the width and indentation of the list marker determine the
indentation necessary for blocks to fall under the list item, rather than having a fixed and
arbitrary number. The writer can think of the body of the list item as a unit which gets
indented to the right enough to fit the list marker (and any indentation on the list marker).
(The laziness rule, #5, then allows continuation lines to be unindented if needed.)

This rule is superior, we claim, to any rule requiring a fixed level of indentation from the
margin. The four-space rule is clear but unnatural. It is quite unintuitive that

- foo

bar

- baz

should be parsed as two lists with an intervening paragraph,

<ul>
<li>foo</li>
</ul>
<p>bar</p>
<ul>
<li>baz</li>
</ul>

as the four-space rule demands, rather than a single list,

<ul>
<li>
<p>foo</p>
<p>bar</p>
<ul>
<li>baz</li>

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</ul>
</li>
</ul>

The choice of four spaces is arbitrary. It can be learned, but it is not likely to be guessed, and
it trips up beginners regularly.

Would it help to adopt a two-space rule? The problem is that such a rule, together with the
rule allowing 1–3 spaces indentation of the initial list marker, allows text that is indented
less than the original list marker to be included in the list item. For example, Markdown.pl
parses

- one

two

as a single list item, with two a continuation paragraph:

<ul>
<li>
<p>one</p>
<p>two</p>
</li>
</ul>

and similarly

> - one
>
> two

as

<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>
<p>one</p>
<p>two</p>
</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>

This is extremely unintuitive.

Rather than requiring a fixed indent from the margin, we could require a fixed indent (say,
two spaces, or even one space) from the list marker (which may itself be indented). This
proposal would remove the last anomaly discussed. Unlike the spec presented above, it
would count the following as a list item with a subparagraph, even though the paragraph
bar is not indented as far as the first paragraph foo:

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10. foo

bar

Arguably this text does read like a list item with bar as a subparagraph, which may count in
favor of the proposal. However, on this proposal indented code would have to be indented six
spaces after the list marker. And this would break a lot of existing Markdown, which has the
pattern:

1. foo

indented code

where the code is indented eight spaces. The spec above, by contrast, will parse this text as
expected, since the code block’s indentation is measured from the beginning of foo.

The one case that needs special treatment is a list item that starts with indented code. How
much indentation is required in that case, since we don’t have a “first paragraph” to measure
from? Rule #2 simply stipulates that in such cases, we require one space indentation from the
list marker (and then the normal four spaces for the indented code). This will match the
four-space rule in cases where the list marker plus its initial indentation takes four spaces (a
common case), but diverge in other cases.

5.3 Task list items (extension) ▲

GFM enables the tasklist extension, where an additional processing step is performed on
list items.

A task list item is a list item where the first block in it is a paragraph which begins with a task
list item marker and at least one whitespace character before any other content.

A task list item marker consists of an optional number of spaces, a left bracket ([), either a
whitespace character or the letter x in either lowercase or uppercase, and then a right
bracket (]).

When rendered, the task list item marker is replaced with a semantic checkbox element; in an
HTML output, this would be an <input type="checkbox"> element.

If the character between the brackets is a whitespace character, the checkbox is unchecked.
Otherwise, the checkbox is checked.

This spec does not define how the checkbox elements are interacted with: in practice,
implementors are free to render the checkboxes as disabled or inmutable elements, or they
may dynamically handle dynamic interactions (i.e. checking, unchecking) in the final rendered
document.

Example 279

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- ·[ ·] ·foo <ul>
- ·[x] ·bar <li><input ·disabled="" ·
type="checkbox"> ·foo</li>
<li><input ·checked="" ·disabled="" ·
type="checkbox"> ·bar</li>
</ul>

Task lists can be arbitrarily nested:

Example 280

- ·[x] ·foo <ul>

··- ·[ ·] ·bar <li><input ·checked="" ·disabled="" ·
··- ·[x] ·baz type="checkbox"> ·foo
- ·[ ·] ·bim <ul>
<li><input ·disabled="" ·
type="checkbox"> ·bar</li>
<li><input ·checked="" ·disabled="" ·
type="checkbox"> ·baz</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><input ·disabled="" ·
type="checkbox"> ·bim</li>
</ul>

5.4 Lists ▲
A list is a sequence of one or more list items of the same type. The list items may be separated
by any number of blank lines.

Two list items are of �e same type if they begin with a list marker of the same type. Two list
markers are of the same type if (a) they are bullet list markers using the same character (-, +,
or *) or (b) they are ordered list numbers with the same delimiter (either . or )).

A list is an �dered list if its constituent list items begin with ordered list markers, and a bu�et
list if its constituent list items begin with bullet list markers.

The start number of an ordered list is determined by the list number of its initial list item. The
numbers of subsequent list items are disregarded.

A list is loose if any of its constituent list items are separated by blank lines, or if any of its
constituent list items directly contain two block-level elements with a blank line between
them. Otherwise a list is tight. (The difference in HTML output is that paragraphs in a loose list
are wrapped in <p> tags, while paragraphs in a tight list are not.)

Changing the bullet or ordered list delimiter starts a new list:

Example 281

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- ·foo <ul>
- ·bar <li>foo</li>
+ ·baz <li>bar</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>baz</li>
</ul>

Example 282

1. ·foo <ol>
2. ·bar <li>foo</li>
3) ·baz <li>bar</li>
</ol>
<ol ·start="3">
<li>baz</li>
</ol>

In CommonMark, a list can interrupt a paragraph. That is, no blank line is needed to separate a
paragraph from a following list:

Example 283

Foo <p>Foo</p>
- ·bar <ul>
- ·baz <li>bar</li>
<li>baz</li>
</ul>

Markdown.pl does not allow this, through fear of triggering a list via a numeral in a hard-
wrapped line:

The number of windows in my house is

14. The number of doors is 6.

Oddly, though, Markdown.pl does allow a blockquote to interrupt a paragraph, even though
the same considerations might apply.

In CommonMark, we do allow lists to interrupt paragraphs, for two reasons. First, it is

natural and not uncommon for people to start lists without blank lines:

I need to buy
- new shoes
- a coat
- a plane ticket

Second, we are attracted to a

principle of unif�mity: if a chunk of text has a certain meaning, it will continue to

have the same meaning when put into a container block (such as a list item or
blockquote).

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(Indeed, the spec for list items and block quotes presupposes this principle.) This principle
implies that if

* I need to buy
- new shoes
- a coat
- a plane ticket

is a list item containing a paragraph followed by a nested sublist, as all Markdown

implementations agree it is (though the paragraph may be rendered without <p> tags, since
the list is “tight”), then

I need to buy
- new shoes
- a coat
- a plane ticket

by itself should be a paragraph followed by a nested sublist.

Since it is well established Markdown practice to allow lists to interrupt paragraphs inside
list items, the principle of uniformity requires us to allow this outside list items as well.
(reStructuredText takes a different approach, requiring blank lines before lists even inside
other list items.)

In order to solve of unwanted lists in paragraphs with hard-wrapped numerals, we allow

only lists starting with 1 to interrupt paragraphs. Thus,

Example 284

The ·number ·of ·windows ·in ·my ·house ·is <p>The ·number ·of ·windows ·in ·my ·house ·
14. ··The ·number ·of ·doors ·is ·6. is
14. ··The ·number ·of ·doors ·is ·6.</p>

We may still get an unintended result in cases like

Example 285

The ·number ·of ·windows ·in ·my ·house ·is <p>The ·number ·of ·windows ·in ·my ·house ·
1. ··The ·number ·of ·doors ·is ·6. is</p>
<ol>
<li>The ·number ·of ·doors ·is ·6.</li>
</ol>

but this rule should prevent most spurious list captures.

There can be any number of blank lines between items:

Example 286

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- ·foo <ul>
<li>
- ·bar <p>foo</p>
</li>
<li>
- ·baz <p>bar</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>baz</p>
</li>
</ul>

Example 287

- ·foo <ul>
··- ·bar <li>foo
····- ·baz <ul>
<li>bar
<ul>
······bim <li>
<p>baz</p>
<p>bim</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

To separate consecutive lists of the same type, or to separate a list from an indented code
block that would otherwise be parsed as a subparagraph of the final list item, you can insert
a blank HTML comment:

Example 288

- ·foo <ul>
- ·bar <li>foo</li>
<li>bar</li>
<!-- ·--> </ul>
<!-- ·-->
- ·baz <ul>
- ·bim <li>baz</li>
<li>bim</li>
</ul>

Example 289

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- ···foo <ul>
<li>
····notcode <p>foo</p>
<p>notcode</p>
- ···foo </li>
<li>
<!-- ·--> <p>foo</p>
</li>
····code </ul>
<!-- ·-->
<pre><code>code
</code></pre>

List items need not be indented to the same level. The following list items will be treated as
items at the same list level, since none is indented enough to belong to the previous list item:

Example 290

- ·a <ul>
·- ·b <li>a</li>
··- ·c <li>b</li>
···- ·d <li>c</li>
··- ·e <li>d</li>
·- ·f <li>e</li>
- ·g <li>f</li>
<li>g</li>
</ul>

Example 291

1. ·a <ol>
<li>
··2. ·b <p>a</p>
</li>
···3. ·c <li>
<p>b</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>c</p>
</li>
</ol>

Note, however, that list items may not be indented more than three spaces. Here - e is treated
as a paragraph continuation line, because it is indented more than three spaces:

Example 292

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- ·a <ul>
·- ·b <li>a</li>
··- ·c <li>b</li>
···- ·d <li>c</li>
····- ·e <li>d
- ·e</li>
</ul>

And here, 3. c is treated as in indented code block, because it is indented four spaces and
preceded by a blank line.

Example 293

1. ·a <ol>
<li>
··2. ·b <p>a</p>
</li>
····3. ·c <li>
<p>b</p>
</li>
</ol>
<pre><code>3. ·c
</code></pre>

This is a loose list, because there is a blank line between two of the list items:

Example 294

- ·a <ul>
- ·b <li>
<p>a</p>
- ·c </li>
<li>
<p>b</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>c</p>
</li>
</ul>

So is this, with a empty second item:

Example 295

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* ·a <ul>
* <li>
<p>a</p>
* ·c </li>
<li></li>
<li>
<p>c</p>
</li>
</ul>

These are loose lists, even though there is no space between the items, because one of the
items directly contains two block-level elements with a blank line between them:

Example 296

- ·a <ul>
- ·b <li>
<p>a</p>
··c </li>
- ·d <li>
<p>b</p>
<p>c</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>d</p>
</li>
</ul>

Example 297

- ·a <ul>
- ·b <li>
<p>a</p>
··[ref]: ·/url </li>
- ·d <li>
<p>b</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>d</p>
</li>
</ul>

This is a tight list, because the blank lines are in a code block:

Example 298

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- ·a <ul>
- ·``` <li>a</li>
··b <li>
<pre><code>b

··```
- ·c </code></pre>
</li>
<li>c</li>
</ul>

This is a tight list, because the blank line is between two paragraphs of a sublist. So the
sublist is loose while the outer list is tight:

Example 299

- ·a <ul>
··- ·b <li>a
<ul>
····c <li>
- ·d <p>b</p>
<p>c</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>d</li>
</ul>

This is a tight list, because the blank line is inside the block quote:

Example 300

* ·a <ul>
··> ·b <li>a
··> <blockquote>
* ·c <p>b</p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>c</li>
</ul>

This list is tight, because the consecutive block elements are not separated by blank lines:

Example 301

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- ·a <ul>
··> ·b <li>a
··``` <blockquote>
··c <p>b</p>
··``` </blockquote>
- ·d <pre><code>c
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>d</li>
</ul>

A single-paragraph list is tight:

Example 302

- ·a <ul>
<li>a</li>
</ul>

Example 303

- ·a <ul>
··- ·b <li>a
<ul>
<li>b</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

This list is loose, because of the blank line between the two block elements in the list item:

Example 304

1. ·``` <ol>
···foo <li>
···``` <pre><code>foo
</code></pre>
···bar <p>bar</p>
</li>
</ol>

Here the outer list is loose, the inner list tight:

Example 305

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* ·foo <ul>
··* ·bar <li>
<p>foo</p>
··baz <ul>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>
<p>baz</p>
</li>
</ul>

Example 306

- ·a <ul>
··- ·b <li>
··- ·c <p>a</p>
<ul>
- ·d <li>b</li>
··- ·e <li>c</li>
··- ·f </ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>d</p>
<ul>
<li>e</li>
<li>f</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>

6 Inlines
Inlines are parsed sequentially from the beginning of the character stream to the end (left
to right, in left-to-right languages). Thus, for example, in

Example 307

`hi`lo` <p><code>hi</code>lo`</p>

hi is parsed as code, leaving the backtick at the end as a literal backtick.

6.1 Backslash escapes ▲

Any ASCII punctuation character may be backslash-escaped:

Example 308

\!\"\#\$\%\&\'\(\)\*\+\,\-\.\/\:\;\<\= <p>!&quot;#$%&amp;'()*+,-./:;&lt;=&
\>\?\@\[\\\]\^\_\`\{\|\}\~ gt;?@[\]^_`{|}~</p>

Backslashes before other characters are treated as literal backslashes:

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Example 309

\→\A\a\ ·\3\φ\« <p>\→\A\a\ ·\3\φ\«</p>

Escaped characters are treated as regular characters and do not have their usual
Markdown meanings:

Example 310

\*not ·emphasized* <p>*not ·emphasized*

\<br/> ·not ·a ·tag &lt;br/&gt; ·not ·a ·tag
\[not ·a ·link](/foo) [not ·a ·link](/foo)
\`not ·code` `not ·code`
1\. ·not ·a ·list 1. ·not ·a ·list
\* ·not ·a ·list * ·not ·a ·list
\# ·not ·a ·heading # ·not ·a ·heading
\[foo]: ·/url ·"not ·a ·reference" [foo]: ·/url ·&quot;not ·a ·
\&ouml; ·not ·a ·character ·entity reference&quot;
&amp;ouml; ·not ·a ·character ·entity</p>

If a backslash is itself escaped, the following character is not:

Example 311

\\*emphasis* <p>\<em>emphasis</em></p>

A backslash at the end of the line is a hard line break:

Example 312

foo\ <p>foo<br ·/>

bar bar</p>

Backslash escapes do not work in code blocks, code spans, autolinks, or raw HTML:

Example 313

`` ·\[\` ·`` <p><code>\[\`</code></p>

Example 314

····\[\] <pre><code>\[\]
</code></pre>

Example 315

~~~ <pre><code>\[\]
\[\] </code></pre>
~~~

Example 316

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<http://example.com?find=\*> <p><a ·
href="http://example.com?find=%5C*">ht
tp://example.com?find=\*</a></p>

Example 317

<a ·href="/bar\/)"> <a ·href="/bar\/)">

But they work in all other contexts, including URLs and link titles, link references, and info
strings in fenced code blocks:

Example 318

[foo](/bar\* ·"ti\*tle") <p><a ·href="/bar*" ·

title="ti*tle">foo</a></p>

Example 319

[foo] <p><a ·href="/bar*" ·

title="ti*tle">foo</a></p>
[foo]: ·/bar\* ·"ti\*tle"

Example 320

``` ·foo\+bar <pre><code ·class="language-

foo foo+bar">foo
``` </code></pre>

6.2 Entity and numeric character references ▲

Valid HTML entity references and numeric character references can be used in place of the
corresponding Unicode character, with the following exceptions:

• Entity and character references are not recognized in code blocks and code spans.

• Entity and character references cannot stand in place of special characters that
define structural elements in CommonMark. For example, although &#42; can be used
in place of a literal * character, &#42; cannot replace * in emphasis delimiters, bullet
list markers, or thematic breaks.

Conforming CommonMark parsers need not store information about whether a particular
character was represented in the source using a Unicode character or an entity reference.

Entity references consist of & + any of the valid HTML5 entity names + ;. The document
https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/entities.json is used as an authoritative source for
the valid entity references and their corresponding code points.

Example 321

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&nbsp; ·&amp; ·&copy; ·&AElig; ·&Dcaron; <p> ·&amp; ·© ·Æ ·Ď

&frac34; ·&HilbertSpace; · ¾ ·ℋ ·ⅆ
&DifferentialD; ∲ ·≧̸</p>
&ClockwiseContourIntegral; ·&ngE;

Decimal numeric character references consist of &# + a string of 1–7 arabic digits + ;. A numeric
character reference is parsed as the corresponding Unicode character. Invalid Unicode code
points will be replaced by the REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (U+FFFD). For security reasons, the
code point U+0000 will also be replaced by U+FFFD.

Example 322

&#35; ·&#1234; ·&#992; ·&#0; <p># ·Ӓ ·Ϡ ·�</p>

Hexadecimal numeric character references consist of &# + either X or x + a string of 1-6 hexadecimal
digits + ;. They too are parsed as the corresponding Unicode character (this time specified
with a hexadecimal numeral instead of decimal).

Example 323

&#X22; ·&#XD06; ·&#xcab; <p>&quot; ·ആ ·ಫ</p>

Here are some nonentities:

Example 324

&nbsp ·&x; ·&#; ·&#x; <p>&amp;nbsp ·&amp;x; ·&amp;#; ·&amp;#x;

&#87654321; &amp;#87654321;
&#abcdef0; &amp;#abcdef0;
&ThisIsNotDefined; ·&hi?; &amp;ThisIsNotDefined; ·&amp;hi?;</p>

Although HTML5 does accept some entity references without a trailing semicolon (such as
&copy), these are not recognized here, because it makes the grammar too ambiguous:

Example 325

&copy <p>&amp;copy</p>

Strings that are not on the list of HTML5 named entities are not recognized as entity
references either:

Example 326

&MadeUpEntity; <p>&amp;MadeUpEntity;</p>

Entity and numeric character references are recognized in any context besides code spans or
code blocks, including URLs, link titles, and fenced code block info strings:

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Example 327

<a ·href="&ouml;&ouml;.html"> <a ·href="&ouml;&ouml;.html">

Example 328

[foo](/f&ouml;&ouml; ·"f&ouml;&ouml;") <p><a ·href="/f%C3%B6%C3%B6" ·

title="föö">foo</a></p>

Example 329

[foo] <p><a ·href="/f%C3%B6%C3%B6" ·

title="föö">foo</a></p>
[foo]: ·/f&ouml;&ouml; ·"f&ouml;&ouml;"

Example 330

``` ·f&ouml;&ouml; <pre><code ·class="language-föö">foo

foo </code></pre>
```

Entity and numeric character references are treated as literal text in code spans and code
blocks:

Example 331

`f&ouml;&ouml;` <p><code>f&amp;ouml;&amp;ouml;
</code></p>

Example 332

····f&ouml;f&ouml; <pre><code>f&amp;ouml;f&amp;ouml;
</code></pre>

Entity and numeric character references cannot be used in place of symbols indicating
structure in CommonMark documents.

Example 333

&#42;foo&#42; <p>*foo*
*foo* <em>foo</em></p>

Example 334

&#42; ·foo <p>* ·foo</p>

<ul>
* ·foo <li>foo</li>
</ul>

Example 335

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foo&#10;&#10;bar <p>foo

bar</p>

Example 336

&#9;foo <p>→foo</p>

Example 337

[a](url ·&quot;tit&quot;) <p>[a](url ·&quot;tit&quot;)</p>

6.3 Code spans ▲

A backtick string is a string of one or more backtick characters (`) that is neither preceded nor
followed by a backtick.

A code span begins with a backtick string and ends with a backtick string of equal length. The
contents of the code span are the characters between the two backtick strings, normalized
in the following ways:

• First, line endings are converted to spaces.

• If the resulting string both begins and ends with a space character, but does not
consist entirely of space characters, a single space character is removed from the
front and back. This allows you to include code that begins or ends with backtick
characters, which must be separated by whitespace from the opening or closing
backtick strings.

This is a simple code span:

Example 338

`foo` <p><code>foo</code></p>

Here two backticks are used, because the code contains a backtick. This example also
illustrates stripping of a single leading and trailing space:

Example 339

`` ·foo ·` ·bar ·`` <p><code>foo ·` ·bar</code></p>

This example shows the motivation for stripping leading and trailing spaces:

Example 340

` ·`` ·` <p><code>``</code></p>

Note that only one space is stripped:

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Example 341

` ··`` ··` <p><code> ·`` ·</code></p>

The stripping only happens if the space is on both sides of the string:

Example 342

` ·a` <p><code> ·a</code></p>

Only spaces, and not unicode whitespace in general, are stripped in this way:

Example 343

` b ` <p><code> b </code></p>

No stripping occurs if the code span contains only spaces:

Example 344

` ` <p><code> </code>
` ··` <code> ··</code></p>

Line endings are treated like spaces:

Example 345

`` <p><code>foo ·bar ···baz</code></p>

foo
bar ··
baz
``

Example 346

`` <p><code>foo ·</code></p>
foo ·
``

Interior spaces are not collapsed:

Example 347

`foo ···bar · <p><code>foo ···bar ··baz</code></p>

baz`

Note that browsers will typically collapse consecutive spaces when rendering <code>
elements, so it is recommended that the following CSS be used:

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code{white-space: pre-wrap;}

Note that backslash escapes do not work in code spans. All backslashes are treated literally:

Example 348

`foo\`bar` <p><code>foo\</code>bar`</p>

Backslash escapes are never needed, because one can always choose a string of n backtick
characters as delimiters, where the code does not contain any strings of exactly n backtick
characters.

Example 349

``foo`bar`` <p><code>foo`bar</code></p>

Example 350

` ·foo ·`` ·bar ·` <p><code>foo ·`` ·bar</code></p>

Code span backticks have higher precedence than any other inline constructs except HTML
tags and autolinks. Thus, for example, this is not parsed as emphasized text, since the second
* is part of a code span:

Example 351

*foo`*` <p>*foo<code>*</code></p>

And this is not parsed as a link:

Example 352

[not ·a ·`link](/foo`) <p>[not ·a ·<code>link](/foo</code>)</p>

Code spans, HTML tags, and autolinks have the same precedence. Thus, this is code:

Example 353

`<a ·href="`">` <p><code>&lt;a ·href=&quot;</code>&

quot;&gt;`</p>

But this is an HTML tag:

Example 354

<a ·href="`">` <p><a ·href="`">`</p>

And this is code:

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Example 355

`<http://foo.bar.`baz>` <p><code>&lt;http://foo.bar.
</code>baz&gt;`</p>

But this is an autolink:

Example 356

<http://foo.bar.`baz>` <p><a ·
href="http://foo.bar.%60baz">http:
//foo.bar.`baz</a>`</p>

When a backtick string is not closed by a matching backtick string, we just have literal
backticks:

Example 357

```foo`` <p>```foo``</p>

Example 358

`foo <p>`foo</p>

The following case also illustrates the need for opening and closing backtick strings to be
equal in length:

Example 359

`foo``bar`` <p>`foo<code>bar</code></p>

6.4 Emphasis and strong emphasis ▲

John Gruber’s original Markdown syntax description says:

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.

This is enough for most users, but these rules leave much undecided, especially when it
comes to nested emphasis. The original Markdown.pl test suite makes it clear that triple ***
and ___ delimiters can be used for strong emphasis, and most implementations have also
allowed the following patterns:

***strong emph***
***strong** in emph*
***emph* in strong**
**in strong *emph***
*in emph **strong***

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The following patterns are less widely supported, but the intent is clear and they are useful
(especially in contexts like bibliography entries):

*emph *with emph* in it*

**strong **with strong** in it**

Many implementations have also restricted intraword emphasis to the * forms, to avoid
unwanted emphasis in words containing internal underscores. (It is best practice to put these
in code spans, but users often do not.)

internal emphasis: foo*bar*baz

no emphasis: foo_bar_baz

The rules given below capture all of these patterns, while allowing for efficient parsing
strategies that do not backtrack.

First, some definitions. A delimiter run is either a sequence of one or more * characters that is
not preceded or followed by a non-backslash-escaped * character, or a sequence of one or
more _ characters that is not preceded or followed by a non-backslash-escaped _ character.

A left-flanking delimiter run is a delimiter run that is (1) not followed by Unicode whitespace, and
either (2a) not followed by a punctuation character, or (2b) followed by a punctuation
character and preceded by Unicode whitespace or a punctuation character. For purposes of
this definition, the beginning and the end of the line count as Unicode whitespace.

A right-flanking delimiter run is a delimiter run that is (1) not preceded by Unicode whitespace, and
either (2a) not preceded by a punctuation character, or (2b) preceded by a punctuation
character and followed by Unicode whitespace or a punctuation character. For purposes of
this definition, the beginning and the end of the line count as Unicode whitespace.

Here are some examples of delimiter runs.

• left-flanking but not right-flanking:

***abc
_abc
**"abc"
_"abc"

• right-flanking but not left-flanking:

abc***
abc_
"abc"**
"abc"_

• Both left and right-flanking:

abc***def
"abc"_"def"

• Neither left nor right-flanking:

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abc *** def

a _ b

(The idea of distinguishing left-flanking and right-flanking delimiter runs based on the
character before and the character after comes from Roopesh Chander’s vfmd. vfmd uses
the terminology “emphasis indicator string” instead of “delimiter run,” and its rules for
distinguishing left- and right-flanking runs are a bit more complex than the ones given here.)

The following rules define emphasis and strong emphasis:

1. A single * character can open emphasis iff (if and only if) it is part of a left-flanking
delimiter run.

2. A single _ character can open emphasis iff it is part of a left-flanking delimiter run and
either (a) not part of a right-flanking delimiter run or (b) part of a right-flanking
delimiter run preceded by punctuation.

3. A single * character can close emphasis iff it is part of a right-flanking delimiter run.

4. A single _ character can close emphasis iff it is part of a right-flanking delimiter run
and either (a) not part of a left-flanking delimiter run or (b) part of a left-flanking
delimiter run followed by punctuation.

5. A double ** can open strong emphasis iff it is part of a left-flanking delimiter run.

6. A double __ can open strong emphasis iff it is part of a left-flanking delimiter run and
either (a) not part of a right-flanking delimiter run or (b) part of a right-flanking
delimiter run preceded by punctuation.

7. A double ** can close strong emphasis iff it is part of a right-flanking delimiter run.

8. A double __ can close strong emphasis iff it is part of a right-flanking delimiter run
and either (a) not part of a left-flanking delimiter run or (b) part of a left-flanking
delimiter run followed by punctuation.

9. Emphasis begins with a delimiter that can open emphasis and ends with a delimiter that
can close emphasis, and that uses the same character (_ or *) as the opening delimiter.
The opening and closing delimiters must belong to separate delimiter runs. If one of
the delimiters can both open and close emphasis, then the sum of the lengths of the
delimiter runs containing the opening and closing delimiters must not be a multiple of
3 unless both lengths are multiples of 3.

10. Strong emphasis begins with a delimiter that can open strong emphasis and ends with a
delimiter that can close strong emphasis, and that uses the same character (_ or *) as
the opening delimiter. The opening and closing delimiters must belong to separate
delimiter runs. If one of the delimiters can both open and close strong emphasis, then
the sum of the lengths of the delimiter runs containing the opening and closing
delimiters must not be a multiple of 3 unless both lengths are multiples of 3.

11. A literal * character cannot occur at the beginning or end of *-delimited emphasis or
**-delimited strong emphasis, unless it is backslash-escaped.

12. A literal _ character cannot occur at the beginning or end of _-delimited emphasis or

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__-delimited strong emphasis, unless it is backslash-escaped.

Where rules 1–12 above are compatible with multiple parsings, the following principles
resolve ambiguity:

13. The number of nestings should be minimized. Thus, for example, an interpretation
<strong>...</strong> is always preferred to <em><em>...</em></em>.

14. An interpretation <em><strong>...</strong></em> is always preferred to

<strong><em>...</em></strong>.

15. When two potential emphasis or strong emphasis spans overlap, so that the second
begins before the first ends and ends after the first ends, the first takes precedence.
Thus, for example, *foo _bar* baz_ is parsed as <em>foo _bar</em> baz_ rather
than *foo <em>bar* baz</em>.

16. When there are two potential emphasis or strong emphasis spans with the same closing
delimiter, the shorter one (the one that opens later) takes precedence. Thus, for
example, **foo **bar baz** is parsed as **foo <strong>bar baz</strong>
rather than <strong>foo **bar baz</strong>.

17. Inline code spans, links, images, and HTML tags group more tightly than emphasis. So,
when there is a choice between an interpretation that contains one of these elements
and one that does not, the former always wins. Thus, for example, *[foo*](bar) is
parsed as *<a href="bar">foo*</a> rather than as <em>[foo</em>](bar).

These rules can be illustrated through a series of examples.

Rule 1:

Example 360

*foo ·bar* <p><em>foo ·bar</em></p>

This is not emphasis, because the opening * is followed by whitespace, and hence not part of a
left-flanking delimiter run:

Example 361

a ·* ·foo ·bar* <p>a ·* ·foo ·bar*</p>

This is not emphasis, because the opening * is preceded by an alphanumeric and followed by
punctuation, and hence not part of a left-flanking delimiter run:

Example 362

a*"foo"* <p>a*&quot;foo&quot;*</p>

Unicode nonbreaking spaces count as whitespace, too:

Example 363

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* a * <p>* a *</p>

Intraword emphasis with * is permitted:

Example 364

foo*bar* <p>foo<em>bar</em></p>

Example 365

5*6*78 <p>5<em>6</em>78</p>

Rule 2:

Example 366

_foo ·bar_ <p><em>foo ·bar</em></p>

This is not emphasis, because the opening _ is followed by whitespace:

Example 367

_ ·foo ·bar_ <p>_ ·foo ·bar_</p>

This is not emphasis, because the opening _ is preceded by an alphanumeric and followed by
punctuation:

Example 368

a_"foo"_ <p>a_&quot;foo&quot;_</p>

Emphasis with _ is not allowed inside words:

Example 369

foo_bar_ <p>foo_bar_</p>

Example 370

5_6_78 <p>5_6_78</p>

Example 371

пристаням_стремятся_ <p>пристаням_стремятся_</p>

Here _ does not generate emphasis, because the first delimiter run is right-flanking and the
second left-flanking:

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Example 372

aa_"bb"_cc <p>aa_&quot;bb&quot;_cc</p>

This is emphasis, even though the opening delimiter is both left- and right-flanking, because it
is preceded by punctuation:

Example 373

foo-_(bar)_ <p>foo-<em>(bar)</em></p>

Rule 3:

This is not emphasis, because the closing delimiter does not match the opening delimiter:

Example 374

_foo* <p>_foo*</p>

This is not emphasis, because the closing * is preceded by whitespace:

Example 375

*foo ·bar ·* <p>*foo ·bar ·*</p>

A newline also counts as whitespace:

Example 376

*foo ·bar <p>*foo ·bar

* *</p>

This is not emphasis, because the second * is preceded by punctuation and followed by an
alphanumeric (hence it is not part of a right-flanking delimiter run:

Example 377

*(*foo) <p>*(*foo)</p>

The point of this restriction is more easily appreciated with this example:

Example 378

*(*foo*)* <p><em>(<em>foo</em>)</em></p>

Intraword emphasis with * is allowed:

Example 379

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*foo*bar <p><em>foo</em>bar</p>

Rule 4:

This is not emphasis, because the closing _ is preceded by whitespace:

Example 380

_foo ·bar ·_ <p>_foo ·bar ·_</p>

This is not emphasis, because the second _ is preceded by punctuation and followed by an
alphanumeric:

Example 381

_(_foo) <p>_(_foo)</p>

This is emphasis within emphasis:

Example 382

_(_foo_)_ <p><em>(<em>foo</em>)</em></p>

Intraword emphasis is disallowed for _:

Example 383

_foo_bar <p>_foo_bar</p>

Example 384

_пристаням_стремятся <p>_пристаням_стремятся</p>

Example 385

_foo_bar_baz_ <p><em>foo_bar_baz</em></p>

This is emphasis, even though the closing delimiter is both left- and right-flanking, because it
is followed by punctuation:

Example 386

_(bar)_. <p><em>(bar)</em>.</p>

Rule 5:

Example 387

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**foo ·bar** <p><strong>foo ·bar</strong></p>

This is not strong emphasis, because the opening delimiter is followed by whitespace:

Example 388

** ·foo ·bar** <p>** ·foo ·bar**</p>

This is not strong emphasis, because the opening ** is preceded by an alphanumeric and
followed by punctuation, and hence not part of a left-flanking delimiter run:

Example 389

a**"foo"** <p>a**&quot;foo&quot;**</p>

Intraword strong emphasis with ** is permitted:

Example 390

foo**bar** <p>foo<strong>bar</strong></p>

Rule 6:

Example 391

__foo ·bar__ <p><strong>foo ·bar</strong></p>

This is not strong emphasis, because the opening delimiter is followed by whitespace:

Example 392

__ ·foo ·bar__ <p>__ ·foo ·bar__</p>

A newline counts as whitespace:

Example 393

__ <p>__
foo ·bar__ foo ·bar__</p>

This is not strong emphasis, because the opening __ is preceded by an alphanumeric and
followed by punctuation:

Example 394

a__"foo"__ <p>a__&quot;foo&quot;__</p>

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Intraword strong emphasis is forbidden with __:

Example 395

foo__bar__ <p>foo__bar__</p>

Example 396

5__6__78 <p>5__6__78</p>

Example 397

пристаням__стремятся__ <p>пристаням__стремятся__</p>

Example 398

__foo, ·__bar__, ·baz__ <p><strong>foo, ·<strong>bar</strong>, ·

baz</strong></p>

This is strong emphasis, even though the opening delimiter is both left- and right-flanking,
because it is preceded by punctuation:

Example 399

foo-__(bar)__ <p>foo-<strong>(bar)</strong></p>

Rule 7:

This is not strong emphasis, because the closing delimiter is preceded by whitespace:

Example 400

**foo ·bar ·** <p>**foo ·bar ·**</p>

(Nor can it be interpreted as an emphasized *foo bar *, because of Rule 11.)

This is not strong emphasis, because the second ** is preceded by punctuation and followed
by an alphanumeric:

Example 401

**(**foo) <p>**(**foo)</p>

The point of this restriction is more easily appreciated with these examples:

Example 402

*(**foo**)* <p><em>(<strong>foo</strong>)</em></p>

Example 403

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**Gomphocarpus ·(*Gomphocarpus · <p><strong>Gomphocarpus ·

physocarpus*, ·syn. (<em>Gomphocarpus ·physocarpus</em>, ·
*Asclepias ·physocarpa*)** syn.
<em>Asclepias ·physocarpa</em>)
</strong></p>

Example 404

**foo ·"*bar*" ·foo** <p><strong>foo ·&quot;

<em>bar</em>&quot; ·foo</strong></p>

Intraword emphasis:

Example 405

**foo**bar <p><strong>foo</strong>bar</p>

Rule 8:

This is not strong emphasis, because the closing delimiter is preceded by whitespace:

Example 406

__foo ·bar ·__ <p>__foo ·bar ·__</p>

This is not strong emphasis, because the second __ is preceded by punctuation and followed
by an alphanumeric:

Example 407

__(__foo) <p>__(__foo)</p>

The point of this restriction is more easily appreciated with this example:

Example 408

_(__foo__)_ <p><em>(<strong>foo</strong>)</em></p>

Intraword strong emphasis is forbidden with __:

Example 409

__foo__bar <p>__foo__bar</p>

Example 410

__пристаням__стремятся <p>__пристаням__стремятся</p>

Example 411

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__foo__bar__baz__ <p><strong>foo__bar__baz</strong></p>

This is strong emphasis, even though the closing delimiter is both left- and right-flanking,
because it is followed by punctuation:

Example 412

__(bar)__. <p><strong>(bar)</strong>.</p>

Rule 9:

Any nonempty sequence of inline elements can be the contents of an emphasized span.

Example 413

*foo ·[bar](/url)* <p><em>foo ·<a ·href="/url">bar</a>

</em></p>

Example 414

*foo <p><em>foo
bar* bar</em></p>

In particular, emphasis and strong emphasis can be nested inside emphasis:

Example 415

_foo ·__bar__ ·baz_ <p><em>foo ·<strong>bar</strong> ·

baz</em></p>

Example 416

_foo ·_bar_ ·baz_ <p><em>foo ·<em>bar</em> ·baz</em></p>

Example 417

__foo_ ·bar_ <p><em><em>foo</em> ·bar</em></p>

Example 418

*foo ·*bar** <p><em>foo ·<em>bar</em></em></p>

Example 419

*foo ·**bar** ·baz* <p><em>foo ·<strong>bar</strong> ·

baz</em></p>

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Example 420

*foo**bar**baz* <p><em>foo<strong>bar</strong>baz</em>
</p>

Note that in the preceding case, the interpretation

<p><em>foo</em><em>bar<em></em>baz</em></p>

is precluded by the condition that a delimiter that can both open and close (like the * after
foo) cannot form emphasis if the sum of the lengths of the delimiter runs containing the
opening and closing delimiters is a multiple of 3 unless both lengths are multiples of 3.

For the same reason, we don’t get two consecutive emphasis sections in this example:

Example 421

*foo**bar* <p><em>foo**bar</em></p>

The same condition ensures that the following cases are all strong emphasis nested inside
emphasis, even when the interior spaces are omitted:

Example 422

***foo** ·bar* <p><em><strong>foo</strong> ·

bar</em></p>

Example 423

*foo ·**bar*** <p><em>foo ·<strong>bar</strong>

</em></p>

Example 424

*foo**bar*** <p><em>foo<strong>bar</strong>
</em></p>

When the lengths of the interior closing and opening delimiter runs are both multiples of 3,
though, they can match to create emphasis:

Example 425

foo***bar***baz <p>foo<em><strong>bar</strong>
</em>baz</p>

Example 426

foo******bar*********baz <p>foo<strong><strong>
<strong>bar</strong></strong>
</strong>***baz</p>

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Indefinite levels of nesting are possible:

Example 427

*foo ·**bar ·*baz* ·bim** ·bop* <p><em>foo ·<strong>bar ·<em>baz</em> ·

bim</strong> ·bop</em></p>

Example 428

*foo ·[*bar*](/url)* <p><em>foo ·<a ·href="/url"><em>bar</em>

</a></em></p>

There can be no empty emphasis or strong emphasis:

Example 429

** ·is ·not ·an ·empty ·emphasis <p>** ·is ·not ·an ·empty ·emphasis</p>

Example 430

**** ·is ·not ·an ·empty ·strong ·emphasis <p>**** ·is ·not ·an ·empty ·strong ·
emphasis</p>

Rule 10:

Any nonempty sequence of inline elements can be the contents of an strongly emphasized
span.

Example 431

**foo ·[bar](/url)** <p><strong>foo ·<a ·href="/url">bar</a>

</strong></p>

Example 432

**foo <p><strong>foo
bar** bar</strong></p>

In particular, emphasis and strong emphasis can be nested inside strong emphasis:

Example 433

__foo ·_bar_ ·baz__ <p><strong>foo ·<em>bar</em> ·

baz</strong></p>

Example 434

__foo ·__bar__ ·baz__ <p><strong>foo ·<strong>bar</strong> ·

baz</strong></p>

Example 435

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____foo__ ·bar__ <p><strong><strong>foo</strong> ·

bar</strong></p>

Example 436

**foo ·**bar**** <p><strong>foo ·<strong>bar</strong>

</strong></p>

Example 437

**foo ·*bar* ·baz** <p><strong>foo ·<em>bar</em> ·

baz</strong></p>

Example 438

**foo*bar*baz** <p><strong>foo<em>bar</em>baz</strong>
</p>

Example 439

***foo* ·bar** <p><strong><em>foo</em> ·

bar</strong></p>

Example 440

**foo ·*bar*** <p><strong>foo ·<em>bar</em>

</strong></p>

Indefinite levels of nesting are possible:

Example 441

**foo ·*bar ·**baz** <p><strong>foo ·<em>bar ·

bim* ·bop** <strong>baz</strong>
bim</em> ·bop</strong></p>

Example 442

**foo ·[*bar*](/url)** <p><strong>foo ·<a ·href="/url">

<em>bar</em></a></strong></p>

There can be no empty emphasis or strong emphasis:

Example 443

__ ·is ·not ·an ·empty ·emphasis <p>__ ·is ·not ·an ·empty ·emphasis</p>

Example 444

____ ·is ·not ·an ·empty ·strong ·emphasis <p>____ ·is ·not ·an ·empty ·strong ·
emphasis</p>

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Rule 11:

Example 445

foo ·*** <p>foo ·***</p>

Example 446

foo ·*\** <p>foo ·<em>*</em></p>

Example 447

foo ·*_* <p>foo ·<em>_</em></p>

Example 448

foo ·***** <p>foo ·*****</p>

Example 449

foo ·**\*** <p>foo ·<strong>*</strong></p>

Example 450

foo ·**_** <p>foo ·<strong>_</strong></p>

Note that when delimiters do not match evenly, Rule 11 determines that the excess literal *
characters will appear outside of the emphasis, rather than inside it:

Example 451

**foo* <p>*<em>foo</em></p>

Example 452

*foo** <p><em>foo</em>*</p>

Example 453

***foo** <p>*<strong>foo</strong></p>

Example 454

****foo* <p>***<em>foo</em></p>

Example 455

**foo*** <p><strong>foo</strong>*</p>

Example 456

*foo**** <p><em>foo</em>***</p>

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Rule 12:

Example 457

foo ·___ <p>foo ·___</p>

Example 458

foo ·_\__ <p>foo ·<em>_</em></p>

Example 459

foo ·_*_ <p>foo ·<em>*</em></p>

Example 460

foo ·_____ <p>foo ·_____</p>

Example 461

foo ·__\___ <p>foo ·<strong>_</strong></p>

Example 462

foo ·__*__ <p>foo ·<strong>*</strong></p>

Example 463

__foo_ <p>_<em>foo</em></p>

Note that when delimiters do not match evenly, Rule 12 determines that the excess literal _
characters will appear outside of the emphasis, rather than inside it:

Example 464

_foo__ <p><em>foo</em>_</p>

Example 465

___foo__ <p>_<strong>foo</strong></p>

Example 466

____foo_ <p>___<em>foo</em></p>

Example 467

__foo___ <p><strong>foo</strong>_</p>

Example 468

_foo____ <p><em>foo</em>___</p>

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Rule 13 implies that if you want emphasis nested directly inside emphasis, you must use
different delimiters:

Example 469

**foo** <p><strong>foo</strong></p>

Example 470

*_foo_* <p><em><em>foo</em></em></p>

Example 471

__foo__ <p><strong>foo</strong></p>

Example 472

_*foo*_ <p><em><em>foo</em></em></p>

However, strong emphasis within strong emphasis is possible without switching delimiters:

Example 473

****foo**** <p><strong><strong>foo</strong>
</strong></p>

Example 474

____foo____ <p><strong><strong>foo</strong>
</strong></p>

Rule 13 can be applied to arbitrarily long sequences of delimiters:

Example 475

******foo****** <p><strong><strong>
<strong>foo</strong></strong>
</strong></p>

Rule 14:

Example 476

***foo*** <p><em><strong>foo</strong></em></p>

Example 477

_____foo_____ <p><em><strong><strong>foo</strong>
</strong></em></p>

Rule 15:

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Example 478

*foo ·_bar* ·baz_ <p><em>foo ·_bar</em> ·baz_</p>

Example 479

*foo ·__bar ·*baz ·bim__ ·bam* <p><em>foo ·<strong>bar ·*baz ·

bim</strong> ·bam</em></p>

Rule 16:

Example 480

**foo ·**bar ·baz** <p>**foo ·<strong>bar ·baz</strong></p>

Example 481

*foo ·*bar ·baz* <p>*foo ·<em>bar ·baz</em></p>

Rule 17:

Example 482

*[bar*](/url) <p>*<a ·href="/url">bar*</a></p>

Example 483

_foo ·[bar_](/url) <p>_foo ·<a ·href="/url">bar_</a></p>

Example 484

*<img ·src="foo" ·title="*"/> <p>*<img ·src="foo" ·title="*"/></p>

Example 485

**<a ·href="**"> <p>**<a ·href="**"></p>

Example 486

__<a ·href="__"> <p>__<a ·href="__"></p>

Example 487

*a ·`*`* <p><em>a ·<code>*</code></em></p>

Example 488

_a ·`_`_ <p><em>a ·<code>_</code></em></p>

Example 489

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**a<http://foo.bar/?q=**> <p>**a<a ·href="http://foo.bar

/?q=**">http://foo.bar/?q=**</a></p>

Example 490

__a<http://foo.bar/?q=__> <p>__a<a ·href="http://foo.bar

/?q=__">http://foo.bar/?q=__</a></p>

6.5 Strike�rough (extension) ▲

GFM enables the strikethrough extension, where an additional emphasis type is available.

Strikethrough text is any text wrapped in a matching pair of one or two tildes (~).

Example 491

~~Hi~~ ·Hello, ·~there~ ·world! <p><del>Hi</del> ·Hello, ·

<del>there</del> ·world!</p>

As with regular emphasis delimiters, a new paragraph will cause strikethrough parsing to
cease:

Example 492

This ·~~has ·a <p>This ·~~has ·a</p>

<p>new ·paragraph~~.</p>
new ·paragraph~~.

Three or more tildes do not create a strikethrough:

Example 493

This ·will ·~~~not~~~ ·strike. <p>This ·will ·~~~not~~~ ·strike.</p>

6.6 Links ▲
A link contains link text (the visible text), a link destination (the URI that is the link
destination), and optionally a link title. There are two basic kinds of links in Markdown. In
inline links the destination and title are given immediately after the link text. In reference
links the destination and title are defined elsewhere in the document.

A link text consists of a sequence of zero or more inline elements enclosed by square brackets
([ and ]). The following rules apply:

• Links may not contain other links, at any level of nesting. If multiple otherwise valid
link definitions appear nested inside each other, the inner-most definition is used.

• Brackets are allowed in the link text only if (a) they are backslash-escaped or (b) they
appear as a matched pair of brackets, with an open bracket [, a sequence of zero or
more inlines, and a close bracket ].

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• Backtick code spans, autolinks, and raw HTML tags bind more tightly than the brackets
in link text. Thus, for example, [foo`]` could not be a link text, since the second ] is
part of a code span.

• The brackets in link text bind more tightly than markers for emphasis and strong
emphasis. Thus, for example, *[foo*](url) is a link.

A link destination consists of either

• a sequence of zero or more characters between an opening < and a closing > that
contains no line breaks or unescaped < or > characters, or

• a nonempty sequence of characters that does not start with <, does not include ASCII
space or control characters, and includes parentheses only if (a) they are backslash-
escaped or (b) they are part of a balanced pair of unescaped parentheses.
(Implementations may impose limits on parentheses nesting to avoid performance
issues, but at least three levels of nesting should be supported.)

A link title consists of either

• a sequence of zero or more characters between straight double-quote characters ("),

including a " character only if it is backslash-escaped, or

• a sequence of zero or more characters between straight single-quote characters ('),

including a ' character only if it is backslash-escaped, or

• a sequence of zero or more characters between matching parentheses ((...)),

including a ( or ) character only if it is backslash-escaped.

Although link titles may span multiple lines, they may not contain a blank line.

An inline link consists of a link text followed immediately by a left parenthesis (, optional
whitespace, an optional link destination, an optional link title separated from the link
destination by whitespace, optional whitespace, and a right parenthesis ). The link’s text
consists of the inlines contained in the link text (excluding the enclosing square brackets).
The link’s URI consists of the link destination, excluding enclosing <...> if present, with
backslash-escapes in effect as described above. The link’s title consists of the link title,
excluding its enclosing delimiters, with backslash-escapes in effect as described above.

Here is a simple inline link:

Example 494

[link](/uri ·"title") <p><a ·href="/uri" ·

title="title">link</a></p>

The title may be omitted:

Example 495

[link](/uri) <p><a ·href="/uri">link</a></p>

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Both the title and the destination may be omitted:

Example 496

[link]() <p><a ·href="">link</a></p>

Example 497

[link](<>) <p><a ·href="">link</a></p>

The destination can only contain spaces if it is enclosed in pointy brackets:

Example 498

[link](/my ·uri) <p>[link](/my ·uri)</p>

Example 499

[link](</my ·uri>) <p><a ·href="/my%20uri">link</a></p>

The destination cannot contain line breaks, even if enclosed in pointy brackets:

Example 500

[link](foo <p>[link](foo
bar) bar)</p>

Example 501

[link](<foo <p>[link](<foo
bar>) bar>)</p>

The destination can contain ) if it is enclosed in pointy brackets:

Example 502

[a](<b)c>) <p><a ·href="b)c">a</a></p>

Pointy brackets that enclose links must be unescaped:

Example 503

[link](<foo\>) <p>[link](&lt;foo&gt;)</p>

These are not links, because the opening pointy bracket is not matched properly:

Example 504

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[a](<b)c <p>[a](&lt;b)c
[a](<b)c> [a](&lt;b)c&gt;
[a](<b>c) [a](<b>c)</p>

Parentheses inside the link destination may be escaped:

Example 505

[link](\(foo\)) <p><a ·href="(foo)">link</a></p>

Any number of parentheses are allowed without escaping, as long as they are balanced:

Example 506

[link](foo(and(bar))) <p><a ·
href="foo(and(bar))">link</a></p>

However, if you have unbalanced parentheses, you need to escape or use the <...> form:

Example 507

[link](foo\(and\(bar\)) <p><a ·href="foo(and(bar)">link</a></p>

Example 508

[link](<foo(and(bar)>) <p><a ·href="foo(and(bar)">link</a></p>

Parentheses and other symbols can also be escaped, as usual in Markdown:

Example 509

[link](foo\)\:) <p><a ·href="foo):">link</a></p>

A link can contain fragment identifiers and queries:

Example 510

[link](#fragment) <p><a ·href="#fragment">link</a></p>

<p><a ·
[link](http://example.com#fragment) href="http://example.com#fragment">lin
k</a></p>
[link](http://example.com?foo=3#frag) <p><a ·
href="http://example.com?foo=3#frag">l
ink</a></p>

Note that a backslash before a non-escapable character is just a backslash:

Example 511

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[link](foo\bar) <p><a ·href="foo%5Cbar">link</a></p>

URL-escaping should be left alone inside the destination, as all URL-escaped characters are
also valid URL characters. Entity and numerical character references in the destination will
be parsed into the corresponding Unicode code points, as usual. These may be optionally URL-
escaped when written as HTML, but this spec does not enforce any particular policy for
rendering URLs in HTML or other formats. Renderers may make different decisions about how
to escape or normalize URLs in the output.

Example 512

[link](foo%20b&auml;) <p><a ·href="foo%20b

%C3%A4">link</a></p>

Note that, because titles can often be parsed as destinations, if you try to omit the
destination and keep the title, you’ll get unexpected results:

Example 513

[link]("title") <p><a ·href="%22title%22">link</a></p>

Titles may be in single quotes, double quotes, or parentheses:

Example 514

[link](/url ·"title") <p><a ·href="/url" ·

[link](/url ·'title') title="title">link</a>
[link](/url ·(title)) <a ·href="/url" ·title="title">link</a>
<a ·href="/url" ·
title="title">link</a></p>

Backslash escapes and entity and numeric character references may be used in titles:

Example 515

[link](/url ·"title ·\"&quot;") <p><a ·href="/url" ·title="title ·

&quot;&quot;">link</a></p>

Titles must be separated from the link using a whitespace. Other Unicode whitespace like non-
breaking space doesn’t work.

Example 516

[link](/url "title") <p><a ·href="/url%C2%A0

%22title%22">link</a></p>

Nested balanced quotes are not allowed without escaping:

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Example 517

[link](/url ·"title ·"and" ·title") <p>[link](/url ·&quot;title ·

&quot;and&quot; ·title&quot;)</p>

But it is easy to work around this by using a different quote type:

Example 518

[link](/url ·'title ·"and" ·title') <p><a ·href="/url" ·title="title ·

&quot;and&quot; ·title">link</a></p>

(Note: Markdown.pl did allow double quotes inside a double-quoted title, and its test suite
included a test demonstrating this. But it is hard to see a good rationale for the extra
complexity this brings, since there are already many ways—backslash escaping, entity and
numeric character references, or using a different quote type for the enclosing title—to
write titles containing double quotes. Markdown.pl’s handling of titles has a number of
other strange features. For example, it allows single-quoted titles in inline links, but not
reference links. And, in reference links but not inline links, it allows a title to begin with "
and end with ). Markdown.pl 1.0.1 even allows titles with no closing quotation mark,
though 1.0.2b8 does not. It seems preferable to adopt a simple, rational rule that works the
same way in inline links and link reference definitions.)

Whitespace is allowed around the destination and title:

Example 519

[link]( ···/uri <p><a ·href="/uri" ·

··"title" ··) title="title">link</a></p>

But it is not allowed between the link text and the following parenthesis:

Example 520

[link] ·(/uri) <p>[link] ·(/uri)</p>

The link text may contain balanced brackets, but not unbalanced ones, unless they are
escaped:

Example 521

[link ·[foo ·[bar]]](/uri) <p><a ·href="/uri">link ·[foo ·[bar]]

</a></p>

Example 522

[link] ·bar](/uri) <p>[link] ·bar](/uri)</p>

Example 523

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[link ·[bar](/uri) <p>[link ·<a ·href="/uri">bar</a></p>

Example 524

[link ·\[bar](/uri) <p><a ·href="/uri">link ·[bar</a></p>

The link text may contain inline content:

Example 525

[link ·*foo ·**bar** ·`#`*](/uri) <p><a ·href="/uri">link ·<em>foo ·

<strong>bar</strong> ·<code>#</code>
</em></a></p>

Example 526

[](/uri) <p><a ·href="/uri"><img ·src="moon.jpg" ·

alt="moon" ·/></a></p>

However, links may not contain other links, at any level of nesting.

Example 527

[foo ·[bar](/uri)](/uri) <p>[foo ·<a ·href="/uri">bar</a>]

(/uri)</p>

Example 528

[foo ·*[bar ·[baz](/uri)](/uri)*](/uri) <p>[foo ·<em>[bar ·<a ·

href="/uri">baz</a>](/uri)</em>]
(/uri)</p>

Example 529

](uri2)](uri3) <p><img ·src="uri3" ·alt="[foo](uri2)" ·

/></p>

These cases illustrate the precedence of link text grouping over emphasis grouping:

Example 530

*[foo*](/uri) <p>*<a ·href="/uri">foo*</a></p>

Example 531

[foo ·*bar](baz*) <p><a ·href="baz*">foo ·*bar</a></p>

Note that brackets that aren’t part of links do not take precedence:

Example 532

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*foo ·[bar* ·baz] <p><em>foo ·[bar</em> ·baz]</p>

These cases illustrate the precedence of HTML tags, code spans, and autolinks over link
grouping:

Example 533

[foo ·<bar ·attr="](baz)"> <p>[foo ·<bar ·attr="](baz)"></p>

Example 534

[foo`](/uri)` <p>[foo<code>](/uri)</code></p>

Example 535

[foo<http://example.com/?search=] <p>[foo<a ·href="http://example.com

(uri)> /?search=%5D(uri)">http://example.com
/?search=](uri)</a></p>

There are three kinds of reference links: full, collapsed, and shortcut.

A fu� reference link consists of a link text immediately followed by a link label that matches a
link reference definition elsewhere in the document.

A link label begins with a left bracket ([) and ends with the first right bracket (]) that is not
backslash-escaped. Between these brackets there must be at least one non-whitespace
character. Unescaped square bracket characters are not allowed inside the opening and
closing square brackets of link labels. A link label can have at most 999 characters inside
the square brackets.

One label matches another just in case their normalized forms are equal. To normalize a label,
strip off the opening and closing brackets, perform the Unicode case fold, strip leading and
trailing whitespace and collapse consecutive internal whitespace to a single space. If there
are multiple matching reference link definitions, the one that comes first in the document is
used. (It is desirable in such cases to emit a warning.)

The link’s URI and title are provided by the matching link reference definition.

Here is a simple example:

Example 536

[foo][bar] <p><a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">foo</a></p>
[bar]: ·/url ·"title"

The rules for the link text are the same as with inline links. Thus:

The link text may contain balanced brackets, but not unbalanced ones, unless they are
escaped:

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Example 537

[link ·[foo ·[bar]]][ref] <p><a ·href="/uri">link ·[foo ·[bar]]

</a></p>
[ref]: ·/uri

Example 538

[link ·\[bar][ref] <p><a ·href="/uri">link ·[bar</a></p>

[ref]: ·/uri

The link text may contain inline content:

Example 539

[link ·*foo ·**bar** ·`#`*][ref] <p><a ·href="/uri">link ·<em>foo ·

<strong>bar</strong> ·<code>#</code>
[ref]: ·/uri </em></a></p>

Example 540

[][ref] <p><a ·href="/uri"><img ·src="moon.jpg" ·

alt="moon" ·/></a></p>
[ref]: ·/uri

However, links may not contain other links, at any level of nesting.

Example 541

[foo ·[bar](/uri)][ref] <p>[foo ·<a ·href="/uri">bar</a>]<a ·

href="/uri">ref</a></p>
[ref]: ·/uri

Example 542

[foo ·*bar ·[baz][ref]*][ref] <p>[foo ·<em>bar ·<a ·href="/uri">baz</a>

</em>]<a ·href="/uri">ref</a></p>
[ref]: ·/uri

(In the examples above, we have two shortcut reference links instead of one full reference
link.)

The following cases illustrate the precedence of link text grouping over emphasis grouping:

Example 543

*[foo*][ref] <p>*<a ·href="/uri">foo*</a></p>

[ref]: ·/uri

Example 544

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[foo ·*bar][ref]* <p><a ·href="/uri">foo ·*bar</a>*</p>

[ref]: ·/uri

These cases illustrate the precedence of HTML tags, code spans, and autolinks over link
grouping:

Example 545

[foo ·<bar ·attr="][ref]"> <p>[foo ·<bar ·attr="][ref]"></p>

[ref]: ·/uri

Example 546

[foo`][ref]` <p>[foo<code>][ref]</code></p>

[ref]: ·/uri

Example 547

[foo<http://example.com/?search=] <p>[foo<a ·href="http://example.com

[ref]> /?search=%5D%5Bref%5D">http:
//example.com/?search=][ref]</a></p>
[ref]: ·/uri

Matching is case-insensitive:

Example 548

[foo][BaR] <p><a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">foo</a></p>
[bar]: ·/url ·"title"

Unicode case fold is used:

Example 549

[ẞ] <p><a ·href="/url">ẞ</a></p>

[SS]: ·/url

Consecutive internal whitespace is treated as one space for purposes of determining

matching:

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Example 550

[Foo <p><a ·href="/url">Baz</a></p>

··bar]: ·/url

[Baz][Foo ·bar]

No whitespace is allowed between the link text and the link label:

Example 551

[foo] ·[bar] <p>[foo] ·<a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">bar</a></p>
[bar]: ·/url ·"title"

Example 552

[foo] <p>[foo]
[bar] <a ·href="/url" ·
title="title">bar</a></p>
[bar]: ·/url ·"title"

This is a departure from John Gruber’s original Markdown syntax description, which
explicitly allows whitespace between the link text and the link label. It brings reference links
in line with inline links, which (according to both original Markdown and this spec) cannot
have whitespace after the link text. More importantly, it prevents inadvertent capture of
consecutive shortcut reference links. If whitespace is allowed between the link text and the
link label, then in the following we will have a single reference link, not two shortcut
reference links, as intended:

[foo]
[bar]

[foo]: /url1
[bar]: /url2

(Note that shortcut reference links were introduced by Gruber himself in a beta version of
Markdown.pl, but never included in the official syntax description. Without shortcut
reference links, it is harmless to allow space between the link text and link label; but once
shortcut references are introduced, it is too dangerous to allow this, as it frequently leads
to unintended results.)

When there are multiple matching link reference definitions, the first is used:

Example 553

[foo]: ·/url1 <p><a ·href="/url1">bar</a></p>

[foo]: ·/url2

[bar][foo]

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Note that matching is performed on normalized strings, not parsed inline content. So the
following does not match, even though the labels define equivalent inline content:

Example 554

[bar][foo\!] <p>[bar][foo!]</p>

[foo!]: ·/url

Link labels cannot contain brackets, unless they are backslash-escaped:

Example 555

[foo][ref[] <p>[foo][ref[]</p>
<p>[ref[]: ·/uri</p>
[ref[]: ·/uri

Example 556

[foo][ref[bar]] <p>[foo][ref[bar]]</p>
<p>[ref[bar]]: ·/uri</p>
[ref[bar]]: ·/uri

Example 557

[[[foo]]] <p>[[[foo]]]</p>
<p>[[[foo]]]: ·/url</p>
[[[foo]]]: ·/url

Example 558

[foo][ref\[] <p><a ·href="/uri">foo</a></p>

[ref\[]: ·/uri

Note that in this example ] is not backslash-escaped:

Example 559

[bar\\]: ·/uri <p><a ·href="/uri">bar\</a></p>

[bar\\]

A link label must contain at least one non-whitespace character:

Example 560

[] <p>[]</p>
<p>[]: ·/uri</p>
[]: ·/uri

Example 561

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[ <p>[
·] ]</p>
<p>[
[ ]: ·/uri</p>
·]: ·/uri

A co�apsed reference link consists of a link label that matches a link reference definition
elsewhere in the document, followed by the string []. The contents of the first link label are
parsed as inlines, which are used as the link’s text. The link’s URI and title are provided by the
matching reference link definition. Thus, [foo][] is equivalent to [foo][foo].

Example 562

[foo][] <p><a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">foo</a></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

Example 563

[*foo* ·bar][] <p><a ·href="/url" ·title="title">

<em>foo</em> ·bar</a></p>
[*foo* ·bar]: ·/url ·"title"

The link labels are case-insensitive:

Example 564

[Foo][] <p><a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">Foo</a></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

As with full reference links, whitespace is not allowed between the two sets of brackets:

Example 565

[foo] · <p><a ·href="/url" ·

[] title="title">foo</a>
[]</p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

A sh�tcut reference link consists of a link label that matches a link reference definition
elsewhere in the document and is not followed by [] or a link label. The contents of the
first link label are parsed as inlines, which are used as the link’s text. The link’s URI and title
are provided by the matching link reference definition. Thus, [foo] is equivalent to [foo][].

Example 566

[foo] <p><a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">foo</a></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

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Example 567

[*foo* ·bar] <p><a ·href="/url" ·title="title">

<em>foo</em> ·bar</a></p>
[*foo* ·bar]: ·/url ·"title"

Example 568

[[*foo* ·bar]] <p>[<a ·href="/url" ·title="title">

<em>foo</em> ·bar</a>]</p>
[*foo* ·bar]: ·/url ·"title"

Example 569

[[bar ·[foo] <p>[[bar ·<a ·href="/url">foo</a></p>

[foo]: ·/url

The link labels are case-insensitive:

Example 570

[Foo] <p><a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">Foo</a></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

A space after the link text should be preserved:

Example 571

[foo] ·bar <p><a ·href="/url">foo</a> ·bar</p>

[foo]: ·/url

If you just want bracketed text, you can backslash-escape the opening bracket to avoid links:

Example 572

\[foo] <p>[foo]</p>

[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

Note that this is a link, because a link label ends with the first following closing bracket:

Example 573

[foo*]: ·/url <p>*<a ·href="/url">foo*</a></p>

*[foo*]

Full and compact references take precedence over shortcut references:

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Example 574

[foo][bar] <p><a ·href="/url2">foo</a></p>

[foo]: ·/url1
[bar]: ·/url2

Example 575

[foo][] <p><a ·href="/url1">foo</a></p>

[foo]: ·/url1

Inline links also take precedence:

Example 576

[foo]() <p><a ·href="">foo</a></p>

[foo]: ·/url1

Example 577

[foo](not ·a ·link) <p><a ·href="/url1">foo</a>(not ·a ·

link)</p>
[foo]: ·/url1

In the following case [bar][baz] is parsed as a reference, [foo] as normal text:

Example 578

[foo][bar][baz] <p>[foo]<a ·href="/url">bar</a></p>

[baz]: ·/url

Here, though, [foo][bar] is parsed as a reference, since [bar] is defined:

Example 579

[foo][bar][baz] <p><a ·href="/url2">foo</a><a ·

href="/url1">baz</a></p>
[baz]: ·/url1
[bar]: ·/url2

Here [foo] is not parsed as a shortcut reference, because it is followed by a link label (even
though [bar] is not defined):

Example 580

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[foo][bar][baz] <p>[foo]<a ·href="/url1">bar</a></p>

[baz]: ·/url1
[foo]: ·/url2

6.7 Images ▲
Syntax for images is like the syntax for links, with one difference. Instead of link text, we have
an image description. The rules for this are the same as for link text, except that (a) an image
description starts with ![ rather than [, and (b) an image description may contain links. An
image description has inline elements as its contents. When an image is rendered to HTML, this
is standardly used as the image’s alt attribute.

Example 581

![foo](/url ·"title") <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="foo" ·

title="title" ·/></p>

Example 582

![foo ·*bar*] <p><img ·src="train.jpg" ·alt="foo ·bar" ·

title="train ·&amp; ·tracks" ·/></p>
[foo ·*bar*]: ·train.jpg ·"train ·& ·
tracks"

Example 583

](/url2) <p><img ·src="/url2" ·alt="foo ·bar" ·

/></p>

Example 584

](/url2) <p><img ·src="/url2" ·alt="foo ·bar" ·

/></p>

Though this spec is concerned with parsing, not rendering, it is recommended that in
rendering to HTML, only the plain string content of the image description be used. Note that
in the above example, the alt attribute’s value is foo bar, not foo [bar](/url) or foo <a
href="/url">bar</a>. Only the plain string content is rendered, without formatting.

Example 585

![foo ·*bar*][] <p><img ·src="train.jpg" ·alt="foo ·bar" ·

title="train ·&amp; ·tracks" ·/></p>
[foo ·*bar*]: ·train.jpg ·"train ·& ·
tracks"

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Example 586

![foo ·*bar*][foobar] <p><img ·src="train.jpg" ·alt="foo ·bar" ·

title="train ·&amp; ·tracks" ·/></p>
[FOOBAR]: ·train.jpg ·"train ·& ·tracks"

Example 587

 <p><img ·src="train.jpg" ·alt="foo" ·

/></p>

Example 588

My ·![foo ·bar](/path/to/train.jpg ·· <p>My ·<img ·src="/path/to/train.jpg" ·

"title" ···) alt="foo ·bar" ·title="title" ·/></p>

Example 589

 <p><img ·src="url" ·alt="foo" ·/></p>

Example 590

 <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="" ·/></p>

Reference-style:

Example 591

![foo][bar] <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="foo" ·/></p>

[bar]: ·/url

Example 592

![foo][bar] <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="foo" ·/></p>

[BAR]: ·/url

Collapsed:

Example 593

![foo][] <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="foo" ·

title="title" ·/></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

Example 594

![*foo* ·bar][] <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="foo ·bar" ·

title="title" ·/></p>
[*foo* ·bar]: ·/url ·"title"

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The labels are case-insensitive:

Example 595

![Foo][] <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="Foo" ·

title="title" ·/></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

As with reference links, whitespace is not allowed between the two sets of brackets:

Example 596

![foo] · <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="foo" ·

[] title="title" ·/>
[]</p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

Shortcut:

Example 597

![foo] <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="foo" ·

title="title" ·/></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

Example 598

![*foo* ·bar] <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="foo ·bar" ·

title="title" ·/></p>
[*foo* ·bar]: ·/url ·"title"

Note that link labels cannot contain unescaped brackets:

Example 599

![[foo]] <p>![[foo]]</p>
<p>[[foo]]: ·/url ·&quot;title&quot;</p>
[[foo]]: ·/url ·"title"

The link labels are case-insensitive:

Example 600

![Foo] <p><img ·src="/url" ·alt="Foo" ·

title="title" ·/></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

If you just want a literal ! followed by bracketed text, you can backslash-escape the opening
[:

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Example 601

!\[foo] <p>![foo]</p>

[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

If you want a link after a literal !, backslash-escape the !:

Example 602

\![foo] <p>!<a ·href="/url" ·

title="title">foo</a></p>
[foo]: ·/url ·"title"

6.8 Autolinks ▲
Autolinks are absolute URIs and email addresses inside < and >. They are parsed as links, with
the URL or email address as the link label.

A URI autolink consists of <, followed by an absolute URI followed by >. It is parsed as a link to
the URI, with the URI as the link’s label.

An absolute URI, for these purposes, consists of a scheme followed by a colon (:) followed by
zero or more characters other than ASCII whitespace and control characters, <, and >. If the
URI includes these characters, they must be percent-encoded (e.g. %20 for a space).

For purposes of this spec, a scheme is any sequence of 2–32 characters beginning with an ASCII
letter and followed by any combination of ASCII letters, digits, or the symbols plus (“+”),
period (“.”), or hyphen (“-”).

Here are some valid autolinks:

Example 603

<http://foo.bar.baz> <p><a ·href="http://foo.bar.baz">http:

//foo.bar.baz</a></p>

Example 604

<http://foo.bar.baz/test?q=hello& <p><a ·href="http://foo.bar.baz

id=22&boolean> /test?q=hello&amp;id=22&amp;
boolean">http://foo.bar.baz
/test?q=hello&amp;id=22&amp;
boolean</a></p>

Example 605

<irc://foo.bar:2233/baz> <p><a ·href="irc://foo.bar:2233

/baz">irc://foo.bar:2233/baz</a></p>

Uppercase is also fine:

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Example 606

<MAILTO:[email protected]> <p><a ·
href="MAILTO:[email protected]">MAILTO:FOO@B
AR.BAZ</a></p>

Note that many strings that count as absolute URIs for purposes of this spec are not valid
URIs, because their schemes are not registered or because of other problems with their
syntax:

Example 607

<a+b+c:d> <p><a ·href="a+b+c:d">a+b+c:d</a></p>

Example 608

<made-up-scheme://foo,bar> <p><a ·href="made-up-

scheme://foo,bar">made-up-scheme:
//foo,bar</a></p>

Example 609

<http://../> <p><a ·href="http://../">http:

//../</a></p>

Example 610

<localhost:5001/foo> <p><a ·
href="localhost:5001/foo">localhost:50
01/foo</a></p>

Spaces are not allowed in autolinks:

Example 611

<http://foo.bar/baz ·bim> <p>&lt;http://foo.bar/baz ·bim&gt;</p>

Backslash-escapes do not work inside autolinks:

Example 612

<http://example.com/\[\> <p><a ·href="http://example.com/%5C%5B

%5C">http://example.com/\[\</a></p>

An email autolink consists of <, followed by an email address, followed by >. The link’s label is
the email address, and the URL is mailto: followed by the email address.

An email address, for these purposes, is anything that matches the non-normative regex from the
HTML5 spec:

/^[a-zA-Z0-9.!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]{0,61}[a-zA-Z0-9])?

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(?:\.[a-zA-Z0-9](?:[a-zA-Z0-9-]{0,61}[a-zA-Z0-9])?)*$/

Examples of email autolinks:

Example 613

<[email protected]> <p><a ·
href="mailto:[email protected]">foo@
bar.example.com</a></p>

Example 614

<[email protected]> <p><a ·
href="mailto:[email protected]
bar0.com">[email protected]
bar0.com</a></p>

Backslash-escapes do not work inside email autolinks:

Example 615

<foo\[email protected]> <p>&lt;[email protected]&gt;</p>

These are not autolinks:

Example 616

<> <p>&lt;&gt;</p>

Example 617

< ·http://foo.bar ·> <p>&lt; ·http://foo.bar ·&gt;</p>

Example 618

<m:abc> <p>&lt;m:abc&gt;</p>

Example 619

<foo.bar.baz> <p>&lt;foo.bar.baz&gt;</p>

Example 620

http://example.com <p>http://example.com</p>

Example 621

[email protected] <p>[email protected]</p>

6.9 Autolinks (extension) ▲

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GFM enables the autolink extension, where autolinks will be recognised in a greater number
of conditions.

Autolinks can also be constructed without requiring the use of < and to > to delimit them,
although they will be recognized under a smaller set of circumstances. All such recognized
autolinks can only come at the beginning of a line, after whitespace, or any of the delimiting
characters *, _, ~, and (.

An extended www autolink will be recognized when the text www. is found followed by a valid
domain. A valid domain consists of segments of alphanumeric characters, underscores (_) and
hyphens (-) separated by periods (.). There must be at least one period, and no underscores
may be present in the last two segments of the domain.

The scheme http will be inserted automatically:

Example 622

www.commonmark.org <p><a ·
href="http://www.commonmark.org">www.c
ommonmark.org</a></p>

After a valid domain, zero or more non-space non-< characters may follow:

Example 623

Visit ·www.commonmark.org/help ·for ·more · <p>Visit ·<a ·

information. href="http://www.commonmark.org
/help">www.commonmark.org/help</a> ·for ·
more ·information.</p>

We then apply extended autolink pa� validation as follows:

Trailing punctuation (specifically, ?, !, ., ,, :, *, _, and ~) will not be considered part of the

autolink, though they may be included in the interior of the link:

Example 624

Visit ·www.commonmark.org. <p>Visit ·<a ·

href="http://www.commonmark.org">www.c
Visit ·www.commonmark.org/a.b. ommonmark.org</a>.</p>
<p>Visit ·<a ·
href="http://www.commonmark.org
/a.b">www.commonmark.org/a.b</a>.</p>

When an autolink ends in ), we scan the entire autolink for the total number of parentheses.
If there is a greater number of closing parentheses than opening ones, we don’t consider the
unmatched trailing parentheses part of the autolink, in order to facilitate including an
autolink inside a parenthesis:

Example 625

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www.google.com/search?q=Markup+ <p><a ·href="http://www.google.com

(business) /search?q=Markup+
(business)">www.google.com
www.google.com/search?q=Markup+ /search?q=Markup+(business)</a></p>
(business))) <p><a ·href="http://www.google.com
/search?q=Markup+
(www.google.com/search?q=Markup+ (business)">www.google.com
(business)) /search?q=Markup+(business)</a>))</p>
<p>(<a ·href="http://www.google.com
(www.google.com/search?q=Markup+ /search?q=Markup+
(business) (business)">www.google.com
/search?q=Markup+(business)</a>)</p>
<p>(<a ·href="http://www.google.com
/search?q=Markup+
(business)">www.google.com
/search?q=Markup+(business)</a></p>

This check is only done when the link ends in a closing parentheses ), so if the only
parentheses are in the interior of the autolink, no special rules are applied:

Example 626

www.google.com/search?q=(business))+ok <p><a ·href="http://www.google.com

/search?q=
(business))+ok">www.google.com
/search?q=(business))+ok</a></p>

If an autolink ends in a semicolon (;), we check to see if it appears to resemble an entity

reference; if the preceding text is & followed by one or more alphanumeric characters. If so,
it is excluded from the autolink:

Example 627

www.google.com/search?q=commonmark& <p><a ·href="http://www.google.com

hl=en /search?q=commonmark&amp;
hl=en">www.google.com
www.google.com/search?q=commonmark&hl; /search?q=commonmark&amp;hl=en</a></p>
<p><a ·href="http://www.google.com
/search?q=commonmark">www.google.com
/search?q=commonmark</a>&amp;hl;</p>

< immediately ends an autolink.

Example 628

www.commonmark.org/he<lp <p><a ·href="http://www.commonmark.org

/he">www.commonmark.org/he</a>&lt;
lp</p>

An extended url autolink will be recognised when one of the schemes http://, or https://,
followed by a valid domain, then zero or more non-space non-< characters according to

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extended autolink path validation:

Example 629

http://commonmark.org <p><a ·
href="http://commonmark.org">http:
(Visit ·https://encrypted.google.com //commonmark.org</a></p>
/search?q=Markup+(business)) <p>(Visit ·<a ·
href="https://encrypted.google.com
/search?q=Markup+(business)">https:
//encrypted.google.com
/search?q=Markup+(business)</a>)</p>

An extended email autolink will be recognised when an email address is recognised within any text
node. Email addresses are recognised according to the following rules:

• One ore more characters which are alphanumeric, or ., -, _, or +.

• An @ symbol.
• One or more characters which are alphanumeric, or - or _, separated by periods (.).
There must be at least one period. The last character must not be one of - or _.

The scheme mailto: will automatically be added to the generated link:

Example 630

[email protected] <p><a ·
href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]<
/a></p>

+ can occur before the @, but not after.

Example 631

hello@mail+xyz.example ·isn't ·valid, · <p>hello@mail+xyz.example ·isn't ·valid, ·

but ·[email protected] ·is. but ·<a ·
href="mailto:[email protected]">h
[email protected]</a> ·is.</p>

., -, and _ can occur on both sides of the @, but only . may occur at the end of the email
address, in which case it will not be considered part of the address:

Example 632

[email protected] <p><a ·href="mailto:[email protected]">a.b-

[email protected]</a></p>
[email protected]. <p><a ·href="mailto:[email protected]">a.b-
[email protected]</a>.</p>
[email protected] <p>[email protected]</p>
<p>[email protected]_</p>
[email protected]_

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An extended protocol autolink will be recognised when a protocol is recognised within any text
node. Valid protocols are:

• mailto:
• xmpp:

The scheme of the protocol will automatically be added to the generated link. All the rules
of email address autolinking apply.

Example 633

mailto:[email protected] <p><a ·
href="mailto:[email protected]">mailto:foo@b
mailto:[email protected] ar.baz</a></p>
<p><a ·href="mailto:a.b-
mailto:[email protected]. [email protected]">mailto:[email protected]</a></p>
<p><a ·href="mailto:a.b-
mailto:[email protected]/ [email protected]">mailto:[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p><a ·href="mailto:a.b-
mailto:[email protected] [email protected]">mailto:[email protected]</a>/</p>
<p>mailto:[email protected]</p>
mailto:[email protected]_ <p>mailto:[email protected]_</p>
<p><a ·
xmpp:[email protected] href="xmpp:[email protected]">xmpp:[email protected]
az</a></p>
xmpp:[email protected]. <p><a ·
href="xmpp:[email protected]">xmpp:[email protected]
az</a>.</p>

A described in the specification xmpp offers an optional / followed by a resource. The

resource can contain all alphanumeric characters, as well as @ and ..

Example 634

xmpp:[email protected]/txt <p><a ·
href="xmpp:[email protected]/txt">xmpp:foo@b
xmpp:[email protected]/txt@bin ar.baz/txt</a></p>
<p><a ·
xmpp:[email protected]/[email protected] href="xmpp:[email protected]/txt@bin">xmpp:f
[email protected]/txt@bin</a></p>
<p><a ·
href="xmpp:[email protected]/[email protected]">xm
pp:[email protected]/[email protected]</a></p>

Further / characters are not considered part of the domain:

Example 635

xmpp:[email protected]/txt/bin <p><a ·
href="xmpp:[email protected]/txt">xmpp:foo@b
ar.baz/txt</a>/bin</p>

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6.10 Raw HTML ▲

Text between < and > that looks like an HTML tag is parsed as a raw HTML tag and will be
rendered in HTML without escaping. Tag and attribute names are not limited to current HTML
tags, so custom tags (and even, say, DocBook tags) may be used.

Here is the grammar for tags:

A tag name consists of an ASCII letter followed by zero or more ASCII letters, digits, or
hyphens (-).

An attribute consists of whitespace, an attribute name, and an optional attribute value

specification.

An attribute name consists of an ASCII letter, _, or :, followed by zero or more ASCII letters,
digits, _, ., :, or -. (Note: This is the XML specification restricted to ASCII. HTML5 is laxer.)

An attribute value specification consists of optional whitespace, a = character, optional whitespace,

and an attribute value.

An attribute value consists of an unquoted attribute value, a single-quoted attribute value, or a

double-quoted attribute value.

An unquoted attribute value is a nonempty string of characters not including whitespace, ", ', =, <,
>, or `.

A single-quoted attribute value consists of ', zero or more characters not including ', and a final '.

A double-quoted attribute value consists of ", zero or more characters not including ", and a final
".

An open tag consists of a < character, a tag name, zero or more attributes, optional whitespace,
an optional / character, and a > character.

A closing tag consists of the string </, a tag name, optional whitespace, and the character >.

An HTML comment consists of <!-- + text + -->, where text does not start with > or ->, does
not end with -, and does not contain --. (See the HTML5 spec.)

A processing instruction consists of the string <?, a string of characters not including the string
?>, and the string ?>.

A declaration consists of the string <!, a name consisting of one or more uppercase ASCII
letters, whitespace, a string of characters not including the character >, and the character
>.

A CDATA section consists of the string <![CDATA[, a string of characters not including the
string ]]>, and the string ]]>.

An HTML tag consists of an open tag, a closing tag, an HTML comment, a processing
instruction, a declaration, or a CDATA section.

Here are some simple open tags:

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Example 636

<a><bab><c2c> <p><a><bab><c2c></p>

Empty elements:

Example 637

<a/><b2/> <p><a/><b2/></p>

Whitespace is allowed:

Example 638

<a ··/><b2 <p><a ··/><b2

data="foo" ·> data="foo" ·></p>

With attributes:

Example 639

<a ·foo="bar" ·bam ·= ·'baz ·<em>"</em>' <p><a ·foo="bar" ·bam ·= ·'baz ·<em>"</em>'
_boolean ·zoop:33=zoop:33 ·/> _boolean ·zoop:33=zoop:33 ·/></p>

Custom tag names can be used:

Example 640

Foo ·<responsive-image ·src="foo.jpg" ·/> <p>Foo ·<responsive-image ·src="foo.jpg" ·

/></p>

Illegal tag names, not parsed as HTML:

Example 641

<33> ·<__> <p>&lt;33&gt; ·&lt;__&gt;</p>

Illegal attribute names:

Example 642

<a ·h*#ref="hi"> <p>&lt;a ·h*#ref=&quot;hi&quot;&gt;</p>

Illegal attribute values:

Example 643

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<a ·href="hi'> ·<a ·href=hi'> <p>&lt;a ·href=&quot;hi'&gt; ·&lt;a ·

href=hi'&gt;</p>

Illegal whitespace:

Example 644

< ·a>< <p>&lt; ·a&gt;&lt;

foo><bar/ ·> foo&gt;&lt;bar/ ·&gt;
<foo ·bar=baz &lt;foo ·bar=baz
bim!bop ·/> bim!bop ·/&gt;</p>

Missing whitespace:

Example 645

<a ·href='bar'title=title> <p>&lt;a ·href='bar'title=title&gt;</p>

Closing tags:

Example 646

</a></foo ·> <p></a></foo ·></p>

Illegal attributes in closing tag:

Example 647

</a ·href="foo"> <p>&lt;/a ·href=&quot;foo&quot;&gt;</p>

Comments:

Example 648

foo ·<!-- ·this ·is ·a <p>foo ·<!-- ·this ·is ·a

comment ·- ·with ·hyphen ·--> comment ·- ·with ·hyphen ·--></p>

Example 649

foo ·<!-- ·not ·a ·comment ·-- ·two ·hyphens · <p>foo ·&lt;!-- ·not ·a ·comment ·-- ·two ·
--> hyphens ·--&gt;</p>

Not comments:

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Example 650

foo ·<!--> ·foo ·--> <p>foo ·&lt;!--&gt; ·foo ·--&gt;</p>

<p>foo ·&lt;!-- ·foo---&gt;</p>
foo ·<!-- ·foo--->

Processing instructions:

Example 651

foo ·<?php ·echo ·$a; ·?> <p>foo ·<?php ·echo ·$a; ·?></p>

Declarations:

Example 652

foo ·<!ELEMENT ·br ·EMPTY> <p>foo ·<!ELEMENT ·br ·EMPTY></p>

CDATA sections:

Example 653

foo ·<![CDATA[>&<]]> <p>foo ·<![CDATA[>&<]]></p>

Entity and numeric character references are preserved in HTML attributes:

Example 654

foo ·<a ·href="&ouml;"> <p>foo ·<a ·href="&ouml;"></p>

Backslash escapes do not work in HTML attributes:

Example 655

foo ·<a ·href="\*"> <p>foo ·<a ·href="\*"></p>

Example 656

<a ·href="\""> <p>&lt;a ·href=&quot;&quot;&quot;&

gt;</p>

6.11 Disa�owed Raw HTML (extension) ▲

GFM enables the tagfilter extension, where the following HTML tags will be filtered when
rendering HTML output:

• <title>
• <textarea>
• <style>

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• <xmp>
• <iframe>
• <noembed>
• <noframes>
• <script>
• <plaintext>

Filtering is done by replacing the leading < with the entity &lt;. These tags are chosen in
particular as they change how HTML is interpreted in a way unique to them (i.e. nested HTML is
interpreted differently), and this is usually undesireable in the context of other rendered
Markdown content.

All other HTML tags are left untouched.

Example 657

<strong> ·<title> ·<style> ·<em> <p><strong> ·&lt;title> ·&lt;style> ·

<em></p>
<blockquote> <blockquote>
··<xmp> ·is ·disallowed. ··<XMP> ·is ·also · ··&lt;xmp> ·is ·disallowed. ··&lt;XMP> ·is ·
disallowed. also ·disallowed.
</blockquote> </blockquote>

6.12 Hard line �eaks ▲

A line break (not in a code span or HTML tag) that is preceded by two or more spaces and does
not occur at the end of a block is parsed as a hard line �eak (rendered in HTML as a <br /> tag):

Example 658

foo ·· <p>foo<br ·/>

baz baz</p>

For a more visible alternative, a backslash before the line ending may be used instead of two
spaces:

Example 659

foo\ <p>foo<br ·/>

baz baz</p>

More than two spaces can be used:

Example 660

foo ······· <p>foo<br ·/>

baz baz</p>

Leading spaces at the beginning of the next line are ignored:

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Example 661

foo ·· <p>foo<br ·/>

·····bar bar</p>

Example 662

foo\ <p>foo<br ·/>

·····bar bar</p>

Line breaks can occur inside emphasis, links, and other constructs that allow inline content:

Example 663

*foo ·· <p><em>foo<br ·/>

bar* bar</em></p>

Example 664

*foo\ <p><em>foo<br ·/>

bar* bar</em></p>

Line breaks do not occur inside code spans

Example 665

`code ·· <p><code>code ···span</code></p>

span`

Example 666

`code\ <p><code>code\ ·span</code></p>

span`

or HTML tags:

Example 667

<a ·href="foo ·· <p><a ·href="foo ··

bar"> bar"></p>

Example 668

<a ·href="foo\ <p><a ·href="foo\

bar"> bar"></p>

Hard line breaks are for separating inline content within a block. Neither syntax for hard line
breaks works at the end of a paragraph or other block element:

Example 669

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foo\ <p>foo\</p>

Example 670

foo ·· <p>foo</p>

Example 671

### ·foo\ <h3>foo\</h3>

Example 672

### ·foo ·· <h3>foo</h3>

6.13 Soft line �eaks ▲

A regular line break (not in a code span or HTML tag) that is not preceded by two or more
spaces or a backslash is parsed as a soft�eak. (A softbreak may be rendered in HTML either as a
line ending or as a space. The result will be the same in browsers. In the examples here, a line
ending will be used.)

Example 673

foo <p>foo
baz baz</p>

Spaces at the end of the line and beginning of the next line are removed:

Example 674

foo · <p>foo
·baz baz</p>

A conforming parser may render a soft line break in HTML either as a line break or as a space.

A renderer may also provide an option to render soft line breaks as hard line breaks.

6.14 Textual content ▲

Any characters not given an interpretation by the above rules will be parsed as plain textual
content.

Example 675

hello ·$.;'there <p>hello ·$.;'there</p>

Example 676

Foo ·χρῆν <p>Foo ·χρῆν</p>

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Internal spaces are preserved verbatim:

Example 677

Multiple ·····spaces <p>Multiple ·····spaces</p>

Appendix: A parsing strategy

In this appendix we describe some features of the parsing strategy used in the CommonMark
reference implementations.

Overview
Parsing has two phases:

1. In the first phase, lines of input are consumed and the block structure of the
document—its division into paragraphs, block quotes, list items, and so on—is
constructed. Text is assigned to these blocks but not parsed. Link reference
definitions are parsed and a map of links is constructed.

2. In the second phase, the raw text contents of paragraphs and headings are parsed into
sequences of Markdown inline elements (strings, code spans, links, emphasis, and so
on), using the map of link references constructed in phase 1.

At each point in processing, the document is represented as a tree of blocks. The root of the
tree is a document block. The document may have any number of other blocks as children. These
children may, in turn, have other blocks as children. The last child of a block is normally
considered open, meaning that subsequent lines of input can alter its contents. (Blocks that
are not open are closed.) Here, for example, is a possible document tree, with the open blocks
marked by arrows:

-> document
-> block_quote
paragraph
"Lorem ipsum dolor\nsit amet."
-> list (type=bullet tight=true bullet_char=-)
list_item
paragraph
"Qui *quodsi iracundia*"
-> list_item
-> paragraph
"aliquando id"

Phase 1: block structure

Each line that is processed has an effect on this tree. The line is analyzed and, depending on
its contents, the document may be altered in one or more of the following ways:

1. One or more open blocks may be closed.

2. One or more new blocks may be created as children of the last open block.
3. Text may be added to the last (deepest) open block remaining on the tree.

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Once a line has been incorporated into the tree in this way, it can be discarded, so input can be
read in a stream.

For each line, we follow this procedure:

1. First we iterate through the open blocks, starting with the root document, and
descending through last children down to the last open block. Each block imposes a
condition that the line must satisfy if the block is to remain open. For example, a block
quote requires a > character. A paragraph requires a non-blank line. In this phase we
may match all or just some of the open blocks. But we cannot close unmatched blocks
yet, because we may have a lazy continuation line.

2. Next, after consuming the continuation markers for existing blocks, we look for new
block starts (e.g. > for a block quote). If we encounter a new block start, we close any
blocks unmatched in step 1 before creating the new block as a child of the last
matched block.

3. Finally, we look at the remainder of the line (after block markers like >, list markers,
and indentation have been consumed). This is text that can be incorporated into the
last open block (a paragraph, code block, heading, or raw HTML).

Setext headings are formed when we see a line of a paragraph that is a setext heading
underline.

Reference link definitions are detected when a paragraph is closed; the accumulated text
lines are parsed to see if they begin with one or more reference link definitions. Any
remainder becomes a normal paragraph.

We can see how this works by considering how the tree above is generated by four lines of
Markdown:

> Lorem ipsum dolor

sit amet.
> - Qui *quodsi iracundia*
> - aliquando id

At the outset, our document model is just

-> document

The first line of our text,

> Lorem ipsum dolor

causes a block_quote block to be created as a child of our open document block, and a
paragraph block as a child of the block_quote. Then the text is added to the last open
block, the paragraph:

-> document
-> block_quote
-> paragraph
"Lorem ipsum dolor"

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The next line,

sit amet.

is a “lazy continuation” of the open paragraph, so it gets added to the paragraph’s text:

-> document
-> block_quote
-> paragraph
"Lorem ipsum dolor\nsit amet."

The third line,

> - Qui *quodsi iracundia*

causes the paragraph block to be closed, and a new list block opened as a child of the
block_quote. A list_item is also added as a child of the list, and a paragraph as a child
of the list_item. The text is then added to the new paragraph:

-> document
-> block_quote
paragraph
"Lorem ipsum dolor\nsit amet."
-> list (type=bullet tight=true bullet_char=-)
-> list_item
-> paragraph
"Qui *quodsi iracundia*"

The fourth line,

> - aliquando id

causes the list_item (and its child the paragraph) to be closed, and a new list_item
opened up as child of the list. A paragraph is added as a child of the new list_item, to
contain the text. We thus obtain the final tree:

-> document
-> block_quote
paragraph
"Lorem ipsum dolor\nsit amet."
-> list (type=bullet tight=true bullet_char=-)
list_item
paragraph
"Qui *quodsi iracundia*"
-> list_item
-> paragraph
"aliquando id"

Phase 2: inline structure

Once all of the input has been parsed, all open blocks are closed.

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We then “walk the tree,” visiting every node, and parse raw string contents of paragraphs and
headings as inlines. At this point we have seen all the link reference definitions, so we can
resolve reference links as we go.

document
block_quote
paragraph
str "Lorem ipsum dolor"
softbreak
str "sit amet."
list (type=bullet tight=true bullet_char=-)
list_item
paragraph
str "Qui "
emph
str "quodsi iracundia"
list_item
paragraph
str "aliquando id"

Notice how the line ending in the first paragraph has been parsed as a softbreak, and the
asterisks in the first list item have become an emph.

An alg�i�m f� parsing nested emphasis and links

By far the trickiest part of inline parsing is handling emphasis, strong emphasis, links, and
images. This is done using the following algorithm.

When we’re parsing inlines and we hit either

• a run of * or _ characters, or
• a [ or ![

we insert a text node with these symbols as its literal content, and we add a pointer to this
text node to the delimiter stack.

The delimiter stack is a doubly linked list. Each element contains a pointer to a text node,
plus information about

• the type of delimiter ([, ![, *, _)

• the number of delimiters,
• whether the delimiter is “active” (all are active to start), and
• whether the delimiter is a potential opener, a potential closer, or both (which depends
on what sort of characters precede and follow the delimiters).

When we hit a ] character, we call the look for link or image procedure (see below).

When we hit the end of the input, we call the process emphasis procedure (see below), with
stack_bottom = NULL.

look for link or image

Starting at the top of the delimiter stack, we look backwards through the stack for an

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opening [ or ![ delimiter.

• If we don’t find one, we return a literal text node ].

• If we do find one, but it’s not active, we remove the inactive delimiter from the stack,
and return a literal text node ].

• If we find one and it’s active, then we parse ahead to see if we have an inline link/image,
reference link/image, compact reference link/image, or shortcut reference link/image.

◦ If we don’t, then we remove the opening delimiter from the delimiter stack and
return a literal text node ].

◦ If we do, then

▪ We return a link or image node whose children are the inlines after the
text node pointed to by the opening delimiter.

▪ We run process emphasis on these inlines, with the [ opener as

stack_bottom.

▪ We remove the opening delimiter.

▪ If we have a link (and not an image), we also set all [ delimiters before the
opening delimiter to inactive. (This will prevent us from getting links
within links.)

process emphasis

Parameter stack_bottom sets a lower bound to how far we descend in the delimiter stack. If
it is NULL, we can go all the way to the bottom. Otherwise, we stop before visiting
stack_bottom.

Let current_position point to the element on the delimiter stack just above
stack_bottom (or the first element if stack_bottom is NULL).

We keep track of the openers_bottom for each delimiter type (*, _) and each length of the
closing delimiter run (modulo 3). Initialize this to stack_bottom.

Then we repeat the following until we run out of potential closers:

• Move current_position forward in the delimiter stack (if needed) until we find the
first potential closer with delimiter * or _. (This will be the potential closer closest
to the beginning of the input – the first one in parse order.)

• Now, look back in the stack (staying above stack_bottom and the openers_bottom
for this delimiter type) for the first matching potential opener (“matching” means same
delimiter).

• If one is found:

◦ Figure out whether we have emphasis or strong emphasis: if both closer and
opener spans have length >= 2, we have strong, otherwise regular.

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◦ Insert an emph or strong emph node accordingly, after the text node
corresponding to the opener.

◦ Remove any delimiters between the opener and closer from the delimiter stack.

◦ Remove 1 (for regular emph) or 2 (for strong emph) delimiters from the opening
and closing text nodes. If they become empty as a result, remove them and
remove the corresponding element of the delimiter stack. If the closing node is
removed, reset current_position to the next element in the stack.

• If none is found:

◦ Set openers_bottom to the element before current_position. (We know that

there are no openers for this kind of closer up to and including this point, so
this puts a lower bound on future searches.)

◦ If the closer at current_position is not a potential opener, remove it from

the delimiter stack (since we know it can’t be a closer either).

◦ Advance current_position to the next element in the stack.

After we’re done, we remove all delimiters above stack_bottom from the delimiter stack.

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