gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files

Copies local files linked to/from Markdown (.md|.markdown) files to the public folder.

A sample markdown file:

---
title: My awesome blog post
---

Hey everyone, I just made a sweet PDF with lots of interesting stuff in it.

[Download it now](my-awesome-pdf.pdf)

When you build your site:

The my-awesome-pdf.pdf file will be copied to the public folder (i.e., public/some-really-long-contenthash/my-awesome-pdf.pdf) and the generated HTML page will be modified to point to it.

Note: The my-awesome-pdf.pdf file should be in the same directory as the markdown file.

Installation

npm install gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files

Configuration

Default settings

Add gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files plugin as a plugin to gatsby-transformer-remark:

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
      options: {
        plugins: [`gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files`],
      },
    },
  ],
}

Custom settings

module.exports = {
  plugins: [
    {
      resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
      options: {
        plugins: [
          {
            resolve: `gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files`,
            options: {
              destinationDir: `path/to/dir`,
              ignoreFileExtensions: [`png`, `jpg`, `jpeg`, `bmp`, `tiff`],
            },
          },
        ],
      },
    },
  ],
}

Option: `destinationDir`

By default, all files will be copied to the root of the public folder in the following format: contentHash/fileName.ext.

For example, [Download it now](my-awesome-pdf.pdf) will copy the file my-awesome-pdf.pdf to something like public/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a/my-awesome-pdf.pdf

Simple usage

To change this, set destinationDir to a path of your own choosing (i.e., path/to/dir).

{
  resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
  options: {
    plugins: [
      {
        resolve: "gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files",
        options: {
          destinationDir: "path/to/dir",
        },
      },
    ],
  },
}

So now, [Download it now](my-awesome-pdf.pdf) will copy the file my-awesome-pdf.pdf to public/path/to/dir/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a/my-awesome-pdf.pdf

Advanced usage

For more control, set destinationDir to a function expression using properties name, hash, and absolutePath to specify the path.

name: The name of the file without the file extension
hash: The internal.contentDigest on the File node (guarantees a unique identifier)
absolutePath: The absolute path to the file, e.g. /Users/your-name/example/project/src/pages/folder/my-awesome-pdf.pdf

Examples:

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `${f.name}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `${f.hash}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/downloads/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a/my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `downloads/${f.hash}/${f.name}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/downloads/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a-my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `downloads/${f.hash}-${f.name}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/my-awesome-pdf/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `${f.name}/${f.hash}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/path/to/dir/hello-my-awesome-pdf+2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a_world.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `path/to/dir/hello-${f.name}+${f.hash}_world`

# save `src/pages/custom-folder/my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/custom-folder/my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
# Note: Import `path` to use this example https://nodejs.org/api/path.html
destinationDir: f => `${path.dirname(path.relative(path.join(__dirname, `src`, `pages`), f.absolutePath))}/${f.name}`

Please note: Make sure you use either name or hash property in your function expression!

If you don't include both name and hash properties in your function expression, gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files plugin will resolve the function expression to a string value and use default settings as a fallback mechanism to prevent your local files from getting copied with the same name (causing files to get overwritten).

# Note: `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` is saved to `public/hello/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a/my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
# because `name` and `hash` properties are not referenced in the function expression.
# So these function expressions are treated the same way
destinationDir: _ => `hello`
destinationDir: `hello`

Caveat: Error thrown if `destinationDir` points outside the `public` folder

Please note: An error will be thrown if the destination points outside the public folder.

Correct:

# saves to `public/path/to/dir/`
destinationDir: `path/to/dir`

# saves to `public/path/to/dir/`
destinationDir: _ => `path/to/dir`

# saves to `public/path/to/dir/fileName.ext`
destinationDir: f => `path/to/dir/${f.name}`

# saves to `public/contentHash.ext`
destinationDir: f => `${f.hash}`

Error thrown:

# cannot save outside `public` folder
destinationDir: `../path/to/dir`
destinationDir: _ => `../path/to/dir`
destinationDir: f => `../path/to/dir/${f.name}`
destinationDir: f => `../${f.hash}`

Custom set which file types to ignore using `ignoreFileExtensions`

By default, the file types that this plugin ignores are: png, jpg, jpeg, bmp, tiff. For example, [Download it now](image.png) will be ignored and not copied to the root of the public folder.

To change this, set ignoreFileExtensions to an array of extensions to ignore (i.e., an empty array [] to ignore nothing).

{
  resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
  options: {
    plugins: [
      {
        resolve: "gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files",
        options: {
          // `ignoreFileExtensions` defaults to [`png`, `jpg`, `jpeg`, `bmp`, `tiff`]
          // as we assume you'll use gatsby-remark-images to handle
          // images in markdown as it automatically creates responsive
          // versions of images.
          //
          // If you'd like to not use gatsby-remark-images and just copy your
          // original images to the public directory, set
          // `ignoreFileExtensions` to an empty array.
          ignoreFileExtensions: [],
        },
      },
    ],
  },
}

So now, [Download it now](image.png) will be copied to the root of the public folder.

Supported Markdown tags

img - ![Image](my-img.png)
link - [Link](myFile.txt)

Supported HTML tags

<img />
<video />
<audio />
<a />