MARKDOWN(3)

💖 markdown(3) — the Library Functions Manual glow-up 💖

okay bestie, so this is markdown(3), a section 3 library function page, and it's literally the whole "process Markdown documents" situation. like. the moment. 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

markdown — process Markdown documents 💅

📚 LIBRARY 📚

Markdown, aka libmarkdown, which you link with -lmarkdown. she's a whole library, not just a vibe.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <mkdio.h>

MMIOT
*mkd_in(FILE *input, int flags);

MMIOT
*mkd_string(char *string, int size, int flags);

int
markdown(MMIOT *doc, FILE *output, int flags);

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so these functions do exactly one iconic thing: they take Markdown documents and strings and turn them into HTML. no cap.

markdown() handles a whole entire document. mkd_text() handles a single string. two different jobs, both eating.

k so here's how you actually use her. wanna process a file? you hand a FILE* to mkd_in(), and if what comes back is nonzero, you pass that into markdown(), which then writes the converted document out to the FILE* you picked. easy.

already got your input sitting in a string? (generated input, or a file you opened with mmap(2), iykyk) then you feed that string to mkd_string() and pass its return value to markdown(). boom. done. 🫶

💅 OPTIONS 💅

Markdown() takes these flag values — or them together with | if you need more than one, she's flexible like that — to restrict how she processes input:

• MKD_NOLINKS — no link processing, and <a> tags get blocked. sorry to the linkers.
• MKD_NOIMAGE — no image processing, <img> gets blocked. the girls are not being perceived today.
• MKD_NOPANTS — don't run smartypants(). put the fancy quotes back in the closet.
• MKD_NOHTML — raw html does NOT come through. AT ALL. like, zero. none.
• MKD_STRICT — disables superscript and relaxed emphasis. strict mode is giving hall monitor.
• MKD_TAGTEXT — process text that's going inside an html tag (think ID=, NAME=, <title>, &tc). no <em>, no <bold>, no html or [] expansion. she's contained, she's professional.
• MKD_NO_EXT — don't allow pseudo-protocols.
• MKD_CDATA — generate code for xml ![CDATA[...]].
• MKD_NOSUPERSCRIPT — no superscripts generated. and emphasis happens everywhere. yes, everywhere everywhere.
• MKD_NOTABLES — tables? disallowed. sorry table girlies.
• MKD_NOSTRIKETHROUGH — ~~strikethrough~~ is forbidden. absolutely not. 💀
• MKD_TOC — do table-of-contents processing.
• MKD_1_COMPAT — compatibility with MarkdownTest_1.0.
• MKD_AUTOLINK — makes http://foo.com into a link even with no <> around it. auto-linking, auto-slaying.
• MKD_SAFELINK — paranoid check for link protocol. she's just looking out for you bestie.
• MKD_NOHEADER — don't process header blocks.
• MKD_TABSTOP — expand tabs to 4 spaces.
• MKD_NODIVQUOTE — forbid >%class% blocks.
• MKD_NOALPHALIST — forbid alphabetic lists.
• MKD_NODLIST — forbid definition lists.
• MKD_NODLDISCOUNT — disable the discount definition list syntax style.
• MKD_DLEXTRA — enable the extra definition list syntax style.
• MKD_EXTRA_FOOTNOTE — enable markdown extra-style footnotes.
• MKD_NOSTYLE — do not extract (omit) <style/> blocks from the output. so they stay in. noted.
• MKD_FENCEDCODE — allow fenced code blocks. ``` gang rise up.
• MKD_IDANCHOR — use id= anchors instead of <a name=/> for table-of-contents links.
• MKD_GITHUBTAGS — allow underscore and dash in passed-through element names.
• MKD_URLENCODEDANCHOR — use html5 encoding for multibyte and nonalphanumeric characters rather than hex expansion in toc links.

🎀 RETURN VALUES 🎀

• markdown() returns 0 on success, 1 on failure. she's a binary queen.
• mkd_in() and mkd_string() return a MMIOT* on success, and null on failure. 😭

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

markdown(1), mkd-callbacks(3), mkd-functions(3), mkd-line(3), markdown(7), mkd-extensions(7), mmap(2).

and also, for the full lore: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax 🌈

💀 BUGS 💀

error handling is minimal at best. like, minimal. don't expect a whole emotional support system from her, okay?

⚠️ also important bestie: the MMIOT created by mkd_string() gets deleted by the markdown function. so don't go touching her after. she's gone. 🙈

mastodon wrote this one down, and it's dated December 20, 2007 — so this page is a certified vintage classic, and honestly? she's still serving. periodt. 💜✨