[GH-ISSUE #894] False positive for MD053 when link follows inline HTML #546

New issue

Closed

opened 2026-03-03 01:27:53 +03:00 by kerem · 1 comment

kerem commented

2026-03-03 01:27:53 +03:00

Owner

Originally created by @philoserf on GitHub (Jul 3, 2023).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/DavidAnson/markdownlint/issues/894

Given

Text with a [link] and [another link].

<hr> <!-- inline html -->
[this link] | [and this link]

<!-- references -->
[link]: https://examples.com/link
[another link]: https://examples.com/another+link
[this link]: https://examples.com/this+link
[and this link]: https://examples.com/and+this+link

Markdownlint identifies [this link] & [and this link] as unreferenced.

Given

Text with a [link] and [another link].

[this link] | [and this link]

<!-- references -->
[link]: https://examples.com/link
[another link]: https://examples.com/another+link
[this link]: https://examples.com/this+link
[and this link]: https://examples.com/and+this+link

Markdownlint does not identify [this link] & [and this link] as unreferenced.

Originally created by @philoserf on GitHub (Jul 3, 2023). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/DavidAnson/markdownlint/issues/894 Given ```markdown Text with a [link] and [another link]. <hr>  [this link] | [and this link]  [link]: https://examples.com/link [another link]: https://examples.com/another+link [this link]: https://examples.com/this+link [and this link]: https://examples.com/and+this+link ``` Markdownlint identifies `[this link]` & `[and this link]` as unreferenced. Given ```markdown Text with a [link] and [another link]. [this link] | [and this link]  [link]: https://examples.com/link [another link]: https://examples.com/another+link [this link]: https://examples.com/this+link [and this link]: https://examples.com/and+this+link ``` Markdownlint does not identify `[this link]` & `[and this link]` as unreferenced.

kerem

2026-03-03 01:27:53 +03:00

closed this issue
added the
question
label

kerem commented

2026-03-03 01:27:54 +03:00

Author

Owner

@DavidAnson commented on GitHub (Jul 3, 2023):

I believe this is correct per the CommonMark specification. Because there is no empty line between the HTML and following content in your first example, it gets treated as part of the same block instead of as Markdown. You can see that neither of the things after that tag are treated as links by the parser and therefore the corresponding link reference definitions are indeed unused:

https://markdown-it.github.io/#md3=%7B%22source%22%3A%22Text%20with%20a%20%5Blink%5D%20and%20%5Banother%20link%5D.%5Cn%5Cn%3Chr%3E%20%3C!--%20inline%20html%20--%3E%5Cn%5Bthis%20link%5D%20%7C%20%5Band%20this%20link%5D%5Cn%5Cn%3C!--%20references%20--%3E%5Cn%5Blink%5D%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexamples.com%2Flink%5Cn%5Banother%20link%5D%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexamples.com%2Fanother%2Blink%5Cn%5Bthis%20link%5D%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexamples.com%2Fthis%2Blink%5Cn%5Band%20this%20link%5D%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexamples.com%2Fand%2Bthis%2Blink%22%2C%22defaults%22%3A%7B%22html%22%3Atrue%2C%22xhtmlOut%22%3Afalse%2C%22breaks%22%3Afalse%2C%22langPrefix%22%3A%22language-%22%2C%22linkify%22%3Atrue%2C%22typographer%22%3Atrue%2C%22_highlight%22%3Atrue%2C%22_strict%22%3Afalse%2C%22_view%22%3A%22html%22%7D%7D

@DavidAnson commented on GitHub (Jul 3, 2023): I believe this is correct per the CommonMark specification. Because there is no empty line between the HTML and following content in your first example, it gets treated as part of the same block instead of as Markdown. You can see that neither of the things after that tag are treated as links by the parser and therefore the corresponding link reference definitions are indeed unused: https://markdown-it.github.io/#md3=%7B%22source%22%3A%22Text%20with%20a%20%5Blink%5D%20and%20%5Banother%20link%5D.%5Cn%5Cn%3Chr%3E%20%3C!--%20inline%20html%20--%3E%5Cn%5Bthis%20link%5D%20%7C%20%5Band%20this%20link%5D%5Cn%5Cn%3C!--%20references%20--%3E%5Cn%5Blink%5D%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexamples.com%2Flink%5Cn%5Banother%20link%5D%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexamples.com%2Fanother%2Blink%5Cn%5Bthis%20link%5D%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexamples.com%2Fthis%2Blink%5Cn%5Band%20this%20link%5D%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fexamples.com%2Fand%2Bthis%2Blink%22%2C%22defaults%22%3A%7B%22html%22%3Atrue%2C%22xhtmlOut%22%3Afalse%2C%22breaks%22%3Afalse%2C%22langPrefix%22%3A%22language-%22%2C%22linkify%22%3Atrue%2C%22typographer%22%3Atrue%2C%22_highlight%22%3Atrue%2C%22_strict%22%3Afalse%2C%22_view%22%3A%22html%22%7D%7D

kerem referenced this issue

2026-03-07 20:06:24 +03:00

[GH-ISSUE #546] MD022: Split into two separate configurations to allow enforcing only one of lines_above/lines_below #2294

kerem referenced this issue

2026-03-07 20:07:13 +03:00

[GH-ISSUE #786] MD022: Custom space between headers #2379