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CommonMark Spec.html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html><head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>CommonMark Spec</title>
<style type="text/css">
body { font-family: Helvetica, arial, freesans, clean, sans-serif;
line-height: 1.4;
max-width: 48em;
margin: auto;
color: #333333;
background-color: #fff;
font-size: 13pt;
}
div#TOC ul { list-style: none; }
h1 { font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold; border-top: 1px solid gray; padding-top: 0.5em; }
h2 { font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold; }
h3 { font-size: 110%; font-weight: bold; }
h4 { font-size: 100%; font-weight: bold; }
a.definition { font-weight: bold; }
span.space { position: relative; }
span.number:after { content: " " }
span.space:after {
content: "·";
position: absolute;
/* create a mark that indicates a space (trick from D. Greenspan) */
top: 0px; bottom: 7px; left: 1px; right: 1px;
color: #AAA;
}
div.example { overflow: hidden; }
p { text-align: justify; }
pre { padding: 0.5em; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; margin-top: 0.2em;
margin-bottom: 0.5em; font-size: 88%; }
pre {
white-space: pre-wrap; /* css-3 */
white-space: -moz-pre-wrap; /* Mozilla, since 1999 */
white-space: -pre-wrap; /* Opera 4-6 */
white-space: -o-pre-wrap; /* Opera 7 */
word-wrap: break-word; /* Internet Explorer 5.5+ */
}
code { font-family: monospace; background-color: #D3E1E4; }
pre > code { background-color: transparent; }
.example { font-size: 0; /* hack to get width:50% to work on inline-block */
padding-bottom: 6pt; }
.column pre { font-size: 11pt; padding-left: 6pt; padding-right: 6pt;
padding-top: 2pt; padding-bottom: 2pt; }
div.examplenum { font-size: 11pt; text-align: left; margin-bottom:10px; }
div.column { display: inline-block; width: 50%; vertical-align: top; }
div.example > div:nth-child(2) { clear:left; background-color: #D3E1E4; }
div.example > div:nth-child(3) { clear:right; background-color: #C9CaCE; }
#watermark {
position:fixed;
bottom:0px;
left:0px;
padding: 1em;
width: 100%;
font-size: 120%;
opacity:0.7;
z-index:99;
color: white;
}
#watermark a { color: white; }
a.dingus {
margin-left: 1em;
cursor: pointer;
line-height: 30px;
padding: 4px 7px;
color: #FFF;
background-color: #33C3F0;
box-shadow: 2px 2px 2px rgba(0,0,0,.2);
border-color: #4FCAEF;
border-bottom: 2px #2A9EC1 solid;
border-right: 2px #2A9EC1 solid;
}
a.footnoteRef > sup:before {
content: "[";
}
a.footnoteRef > sup:after {
content: "]";
}
a.footnoteRef > sup {
vertical-align: baseline;
font-size: 100%;
}
@media print {
@page {
size: auto;
margin: 1.2in 1.2in 1.2in 1.2in;
}
body {
margin: 0px;
line-height: 1.2;
font-size: 10pt;
}
.column pre { font-size: 9pt; }
div.examplenum { font-size: 9pt; }
a.dingus { display: none; }
}
</style>
<script src="CommonMark%20Spec_files/jquery-2.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
$("div.example").each(function(e) {
var t = $(this).find('code.language-markdown').text();
$(this).find('a.dingus').click(function(f) {
window.open('/dingus/?text=' +
encodeURIComponent(t.replace(/→/g,"\t")));
});
});
$("code.language-markdown").dblclick(function(e) { window.open('/dingus/?text=' +
encodeURIComponent($(this).find('code').text()));
});
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<h1 class="title">CommonMark Spec</h1>
<div class="version">Version 0.28 (2017-08-01)</div>
<div class="authors">
<span class="author">John MacFarlane</span>
</div>
<div class="license">
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative
Commons BY-SA" style="border-width:0" src="CommonMark%20Spec_files/80x15.png"></a><br><span style="display:none"><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text" property="dct:title" rel="dct:type">CommonMark Spec</span> by
<a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="http://spec.commonmark.org/" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">John MacFarlane</a> is licensed under a
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>.</span>
</div>
<div id="watermark"></div>
<div id="TOC">
<ul>
<li><a href="#introduction"><span class="number">1</span>Introduction</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#what-is-markdown-"><span class="number">1.1</span>What is Markdown?</a></li>
<li><a href="#why-is-a-spec-needed-"><span class="number">1.2</span>Why is a spec needed?</a></li>
<li><a href="#about-this-document"><span class="number">1.3</span>About this document</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#preliminaries"><span class="number">2</span>Preliminaries</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#characters-and-lines"><span class="number">2.1</span>Characters and lines</a></li>
<li><a href="#tabs"><span class="number">2.2</span>Tabs</a></li>
<li><a href="#insecure-characters"><span class="number">2.3</span>Insecure characters</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#blocks-and-inlines"><span class="number">3</span>Blocks and inlines</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#precedence"><span class="number">3.1</span>Precedence</a></li>
<li><a href="#container-blocks-and-leaf-blocks"><span class="number">3.2</span>Container blocks and leaf blocks</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#leaf-blocks"><span class="number">4</span>Leaf blocks</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#thematic-breaks"><span class="number">4.1</span>Thematic breaks</a></li>
<li><a href="#atx-headings"><span class="number">4.2</span>ATX headings</a></li>
<li><a href="#setext-headings"><span class="number">4.3</span>Setext headings</a></li>
<li><a href="#indented-code-blocks"><span class="number">4.4</span>Indented code blocks</a></li>
<li><a href="#fenced-code-blocks"><span class="number">4.5</span>Fenced code blocks</a></li>
<li><a href="#html-blocks"><span class="number">4.6</span>HTML blocks</a></li>
<li><a href="#link-reference-definitions"><span class="number">4.7</span>Link reference definitions</a></li>
<li><a href="#paragraphs"><span class="number">4.8</span>Paragraphs</a></li>
<li><a href="#blank-lines"><span class="number">4.9</span>Blank lines</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#container-blocks"><span class="number">5</span>Container blocks</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#block-quotes"><span class="number">5.1</span>Block quotes</a></li>
<li><a href="#list-items"><span class="number">5.2</span>List items</a></li>
<li><a href="#lists"><span class="number">5.3</span>Lists</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#inlines"><span class="number">6</span>Inlines</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#backslash-escapes"><span class="number">6.1</span>Backslash escapes</a></li>
<li><a href="#entity-and-numeric-character-references"><span class="number">6.2</span>Entity and numeric character references</a></li>
<li><a href="#code-spans"><span class="number">6.3</span>Code spans</a></li>
<li><a href="#emphasis-and-strong-emphasis"><span class="number">6.4</span>Emphasis and strong emphasis</a></li>
<li><a href="#links"><span class="number">6.5</span>Links</a></li>
<li><a href="#images"><span class="number">6.6</span>Images</a></li>
<li><a href="#autolinks"><span class="number">6.7</span>Autolinks</a></li>
<li><a href="#raw-html"><span class="number">6.8</span>Raw HTML</a></li>
<li><a href="#hard-line-breaks"><span class="number">6.9</span>Hard line breaks</a></li>
<li><a href="#soft-line-breaks"><span class="number">6.10</span>Soft line breaks</a></li>
<li><a href="#textual-content"><span class="number">6.11</span>Textual content</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="#appendix-a-parsing-strategy">Appendix: A parsing strategy</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#overview">Overview</a></li>
<li><a href="#phase-1-block-structure">Phase 1: block structure</a></li>
<li><a href="#phase-2-inline-structure">Phase 2: inline structure</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h1 id="introduction" href="#introduction" class="definition">
<span class="number">1</span>Introduction
</h1>
<h2 id="what-is-markdown-" href="#what-is-markdown-" class="definition">
<span class="number">1.1</span>What is Markdown?
</h2>
<p>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
<a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax">syntax description</a>
and a Perl script (<code>Markdown.pl</code>) 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.</p>
<p>What distinguishes Markdown from many other lightweight markup
syntaxes, which are often easier to write, is its readability.
As Gruber writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.
(<a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/</a>)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The point can be illustrated by comparing a sample of
<a href="http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/">AsciiDoc</a> with
an equivalent sample of Markdown. Here is a sample of
AsciiDoc from the AsciiDoc manual:</p>
<pre><code>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.
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.
--
</code></pre>
<p>And here is the equivalent in Markdown:</p>
<pre><code>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.
</code></pre>
<p>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.</p>
<h2 id="why-is-a-spec-needed-" href="#why-is-a-spec-needed-" class="definition">
<span class="number">1.2</span>Why is a spec needed?
</h2>
<p>John Gruber’s <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax">canonical description of Markdown’s
syntax</a>
does not specify the syntax unambiguously. Here are some examples of
questions it does not answer:</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>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 <code>Markdown.pl</code> does
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 <a href="http://article.gmane.org/gmane.text.markdown.general/1997">this comment by John
Gruber</a>.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>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 <a href="http://article.gmane.org/gmane.text.markdown.general/2146">in favor of requiring the blank
lines</a>.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Is a blank line needed before an indented code block?
(<code>Markdown.pl</code> requires it, but this is not mentioned in the
documentation, and some implementations do not require it.)</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">paragraph
code?
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>What is the exact rule for determining when list items get
wrapped in <code><p></code> tags? Can a list be partially “loose” and partially
“tight”? What should we do with a list like this?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">1. one
2. two
3. three
</code></pre>
<p>Or this?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">1. one
- a
- b
2. two
</code></pre>
<p>(There are some relevant comments by John Gruber
<a href="http://article.gmane.org/gmane.text.markdown.general/2554">here</a>.)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Can list markers be indented? Can ordered list markers be right-aligned?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown"> 8. item 1
9. item 2
10. item 2a
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>Is this one list with a thematic break in its second item,
or two lists separated by a thematic break?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">* a
* * * * *
* b
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>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.)</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">1. fee
2. fie
- foe
- fum
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>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 ?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">[a backtick (`)](/url) and [another backtick (`)](/url).
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>What are the precedence rules for markers of emphasis and strong
emphasis? For example, how should the following be parsed?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">*foo *bar* baz*
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>What are the precedence rules between block-level and inline-level
structure? For example, how should the following be parsed?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">- `a long code span can contain a hyphen like this
- and it can screw things up`
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>Can list items include section headings? (<code>Markdown.pl</code> does not
allow this, but does allow blockquotes to include headings.)</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">- # Heading
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>Can list items be empty?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">* a
*
* b
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>Can link references be defined inside block quotes or list items?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">> Blockquote [foo].
>
> [foo]: /url
</code></pre>
</li>
<li>
<p>If there are multiple definitions for the same reference, which takes
precedence?</p>
<pre><code class="language-markdown">[foo]: /url1
[foo]: /url2
[foo][]
</code></pre>
</li>
</ol>
<p>In the absence of a spec, early implementers consulted <code>Markdown.pl</code>
to resolve these ambiguities. But <code>Markdown.pl</code> was quite buggy, and
gave manifestly bad results in many cases, so it was not a
satisfactory replacement for a spec.</p>
<p>Because there is no unambiguous spec, implementations have diverged
considerably. As a 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.</p>
<h2 id="about-this-document" href="#about-this-document" class="definition">
<span class="number">1.3</span>About this document
</h2>
<p>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 <code>spec_tests.py</code> can be used to run the tests
against any Markdown program:</p>
<pre><code>python test/spec_tests.py --spec spec.txt --program PROGRAM
</code></pre>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This document is generated from a text file, <code>spec.txt</code>, written
in Markdown with a small extension for the side-by-side tests.
The script <code>tools/makespec.py</code> can be used to convert <code>spec.txt</code> into
HTML or CommonMark (which can then be converted into other formats).</p>
<p>In the examples, the <code>→</code> character is used to represent tabs.</p>
<h1 id="preliminaries" href="#preliminaries" class="definition">
<span class="number">2</span>Preliminaries
</h1>
<h2 id="characters-and-lines" href="#characters-and-lines" class="definition">
<span class="number">2.1</span>Characters and lines
</h2>
<p>Any sequence of <a href="#character">characters</a> is a valid CommonMark
document.</p>
<p>A <a id="character" href="#character" class="definition">character</a> 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.</p>
<p>This spec does not specify an encoding; it thinks of lines as composed
of <a href="#character">characters</a> rather than bytes. A conforming parser may be limited
to a certain encoding.</p>
<p>A <a id="line" href="#line" class="definition">line</a> is a sequence of zero or more <a href="#character">characters</a>
other than newline (<code>U+000A</code>) or carriage return (<code>U+000D</code>),
followed by a <a href="#line-ending">line ending</a> or by the end of file.</p>
<p>A <a id="line-ending" href="#line-ending" class="definition">line ending</a> is a newline (<code>U+000A</code>), a carriage return
(<code>U+000D</code>) not followed by a newline, or a carriage return and a
following newline.</p>
<p>A line containing no characters, or a line containing only spaces
(<code>U+0020</code>) or tabs (<code>U+0009</code>), is called a <a id="blank-line" href="#blank-line" class="definition">blank line</a>.</p>
<p>The following definitions of character classes will be used in this spec:</p>
<p>A <a id="whitespace-character" href="#whitespace-character" class="definition">whitespace character</a> is a space
(<code>U+0020</code>), tab (<code>U+0009</code>), newline (<code>U+000A</code>), line tabulation (<code>U+000B</code>),
form feed (<code>U+000C</code>), or carriage return (<code>U+000D</code>).</p>
<p><a id="whitespace" href="#whitespace" class="definition">Whitespace</a> is a sequence of one or more <a href="#whitespace-character">whitespace
characters</a>.</p>
<p>A <a id="unicode-whitespace-character" href="#unicode-whitespace-character" class="definition">Unicode whitespace character</a> is
any code point in the Unicode <code>Zs</code> general category, or a tab (<code>U+0009</code>),
carriage return (<code>U+000D</code>), newline (<code>U+000A</code>), or form feed
(<code>U+000C</code>).</p>
<p><a id="unicode-whitespace" href="#unicode-whitespace" class="definition">Unicode whitespace</a> is a sequence of one
or more <a href="#unicode-whitespace-character">Unicode whitespace characters</a>.</p>
<p>A <a id="space" href="#space" class="definition">space</a> is <code>U+0020</code>.</p>
<p>A <a id="non-whitespace-character" href="#non-whitespace-character" class="definition">non-whitespace character</a> is any character
that is not a <a href="#whitespace-character">whitespace character</a>.</p>
<p>An <a id="ascii-punctuation-character" href="#ascii-punctuation-character" class="definition">ASCII punctuation character</a>
is <code>!</code>, <code>"</code>, <code>#</code>, <code>$</code>, <code>%</code>, <code>&</code>, <code>'</code>, <code>(</code>, <code>)</code>,
<code>*</code>, <code>+</code>, <code>,</code>, <code>-</code>, <code>.</code>, <code>/</code>, <code>:</code>, <code>;</code>, <code><</code>, <code>=</code>, <code>></code>, <code>?</code>, <code>@</code>,
<code>[</code>, <code>\</code>, <code>]</code>, <code>^</code>, <code>_</code>, <code>`</code>, <code>{</code>, <code>|</code>, <code>}</code>, or <code>~</code>.</p>
<p>A <a id="punctuation-character" href="#punctuation-character" class="definition">punctuation character</a> is an <a href="#ascii-punctuation-character">ASCII
punctuation character</a> or anything in
the general Unicode categories <code>Pc</code>, <code>Pd</code>, <code>Pe</code>, <code>Pf</code>, <code>Pi</code>, <code>Po</code>, or <code>Ps</code>.</p>
<h2 id="tabs" href="#tabs" class="definition">
<span class="number">2.2</span>Tabs
</h2>
<p>Tabs in lines are not expanded to <a href="#space">spaces</a>. 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.</p>
<p>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.)</p>
<div class="example" id="example-1">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-1">Example 1</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">→foo→baz→→bim
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre><code>foo→baz→→bim
</code></pre>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-2">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-2">Example 2</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>→foo→baz→→bim
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre><code>foo→baz→→bim
</code></pre>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-3">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-3">Example 3</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>a→a
<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>ὐ→a
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre><code>a→a
ὐ→a
</code></pre>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>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:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-4">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-4">Example 4</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span>foo
→bar
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><ul>
<li>
<p>foo</p>
<p>bar</p>
</li>
</ul>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-5">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-5">Example 5</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">-<span class="space"> </span>foo
→→bar
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><ul>
<li>
<p>foo</p>
<pre><code><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>bar
</code></pre>
</li>
</ul>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>Normally the <code>></code> that begins a block quote may be followed
optionally by a space, which is not considered part of the
content. In the following case <code>></code> 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, <code>foo</code> is considered to be indented six spaces
inside the block quote context, so we get an indented
code block starting with two spaces.</p>
<div class="example" id="example-6">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-6">Example 6</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">>→→foo
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><blockquote>
<pre><code><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>foo
</code></pre>
</blockquote>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-7">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-7">Example 7</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">-→→foo
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><ul>
<li>
<pre><code><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>foo
</code></pre>
</li>
</ul>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-8">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-8">Example 8</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>foo
→bar
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre><code>foo
bar
</code></pre>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-9">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-9">Example 9</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span>foo
<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span>bar
→<span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span>baz
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><ul>
<li>foo
<ul>
<li>bar
<ul>
<li>baz</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-10">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-10">Example 10</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">#→Foo
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><h1>Foo</h1>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-11">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-11">Example 11</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">*→*→*→
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<h2 id="insecure-characters" href="#insecure-characters" class="definition">
<span class="number">2.3</span>Insecure characters
</h2>
<p>For security reasons, the Unicode character <code>U+0000</code> must be replaced
with the REPLACEMENT CHARACTER (<code>U+FFFD</code>).</p>
<h1 id="blocks-and-inlines" href="#blocks-and-inlines" class="definition">
<span class="number">3</span>Blocks and inlines
</h1>
<p>We can think of a document as a sequence of
<a id="blocks" href="#blocks" class="definition">blocks</a>—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 <a id="inline" href="#inline" class="definition">inline</a> content—text,
links, emphasized text, images, code spans, and so on.</p>
<h2 id="precedence" href="#precedence" class="definition">
<span class="number">3.1</span>Precedence
</h2>
<p>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:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-12">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-12">Example 12</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">-<span class="space"> </span>`one
-<span class="space"> </span>two`
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><ul>
<li>`one</li>
<li>two`</li>
</ul>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<h2 id="container-blocks-and-leaf-blocks" href="#container-blocks-and-leaf-blocks" class="definition">
<span class="number">3.2</span>Container blocks and leaf blocks
</h2>
<p>We can divide blocks into two types:
<a id="container-block" href="#container-block" class="definition">container block</a>s,
which can contain other blocks, and <a id="leaf-block" href="#leaf-block" class="definition">leaf block</a>s,
which cannot.</p>
<h1 id="leaf-blocks" href="#leaf-blocks" class="definition">
<span class="number">4</span>Leaf blocks
</h1>
<p>This section describes the different kinds of leaf block that make up a
Markdown document.</p>
<h2 id="thematic-breaks" href="#thematic-breaks" class="definition">
<span class="number">4.1</span>Thematic breaks
</h2>
<p>A line consisting of 0-3 spaces of indentation, followed by a sequence
of three or more matching <code>-</code>, <code>_</code>, or <code>*</code> characters, each followed
optionally by any number of spaces, forms a
<a id="thematic-break" href="#thematic-break" class="definition">thematic break</a>.</p>
<div class="example" id="example-13">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-13">Example 13</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">***
---
___
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
<hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
<hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>Wrong characters:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-14">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-14">Example 14</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">+++
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><p>+++</p>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-15">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-15">Example 15</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">===
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><p>===</p>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>Not enough characters:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-16">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-16">Example 16</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">--
**
__
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><p>--
**
__</p>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>One to three spaces indent are allowed:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-17">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-17">Example 17</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span>***
<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>***
<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>***
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
<hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
<hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>Four spaces is too many:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-18">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-18">Example 18</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>***
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre><code>***
</code></pre>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-19">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-19">Example 19</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">Foo
<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>***
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><p>Foo
***</p>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>More than three characters may be used:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-20">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-20">Example 20</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">_____________________________________
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>Spaces are allowed between the characters:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-21">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-21">Example 21</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span>-
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-22">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-22">Example 22</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span>**<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>*<span class="space"> </span>**<span class="space"> </span>*<span class="space"> </span>**<span class="space"> </span>*<span class="space"> </span>**
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<div class="example" id="example-23">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-23">Example 23</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">-<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>-
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>Spaces are allowed at the end:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-24">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-24">Example 24</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">-<span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span>-<span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span><span class="space"> </span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>However, no other characters may occur in the line:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-25">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-25">Example 25</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">_<span class="space"> </span>_<span class="space"> </span>_<span class="space"> </span>_<span class="space"> </span>a
a------
---a---
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><p>_<span class="space"> </span>_<span class="space"> </span>_<span class="space"> </span>_<span class="space"> </span>a</p>
<p>a------</p>
<p>---a---</p>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>It is required that all of the <a href="#non-whitespace-character">non-whitespace characters</a> be the same.
So, this is not a thematic break:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-26">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-26">Example 26</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown"><span class="space"> </span>*-*
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><p><em>-</em></p>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>Thematic breaks do not need blank lines before or after:</p>
<div class="example" id="example-27">
<div class="examplenum">
<a href="#example-27">Example 27</a><a class="dingus" title="open in interactive dingus">Try It</a>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-markdown">-<span class="space"> </span>foo
***
-<span class="space"> </span>bar
</code></pre>
</div>
<div class="column">
<pre><code class="language-html"><ul>
<li>foo</li>
</ul>
<hr<span class="space"> </span>/>
<ul>
<li>bar</li>
</ul>
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>
<p>Thematic breaks can interrupt a paragraph:</p>