Relative markdown links contain file extensions

[serpro69]

Have you read the Contributing Guidelines on issues?

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines on issues.

Prerequisites

• I'm using the latest version of Docusaurus.
• I have tried the npm run clear or yarn clear command.
• I have tried rm -rf node_modules yarn.lock package-lock.json and re-installing packages.
• I have tried creating a repro with https://new.docusaurus.io.
• I have read the console error message carefully (if applicable).

Description

I'm following the 5-minute tutorial and discovered that relative file paths are not converted to links (the file extension is not removed from the link, and hence results in 404)

Reproducible demo

https://codesandbox.io/p/sandbox/winter-pine-527qpc

Steps to reproduce

• create docs/foo.md and docs/bar.md files
• Link to bar.md from foo.md:

Link to [bar](./bar.md)

• Open foo page and click on the link

Expected behavior

bar page should open at .../docs/bar

Actual behavior

the url contains file extension, i.e. .../docs/bar.md

Your environment

• Public source code: n/a (I've just initialized a new project with docusaurus and following the tutorial)
• Public site URL: n/a
• Docusaurus version used: 3.2.2
• Environment name and version (e.g. Chrome 89, Node.js 16.4): node v18.16.1
• Operating system and version (e.g. Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS): Ubuntu 22.04

Self-service

• I'd be willing to fix this bug myself.

[slorber]

Yes, that is surprising.

Have you only tried this in codesandbox? Can you try on your computer on a new Docusaurus repo instead?

Because this is a very basic Docusaurus feature that should normally work otherwise we'd get thousands of bug reports.

It seems to run fine locally, or inside StackBlitz: https://stackblitz.com/edit/github-mpurku?file=docs%2Fintro.md

So I suspect this bug is only related to CodeSandbox. Maybe it's a new bug due to recent changes they made, and will self-resolve? 🤷‍♂️

[serpro69]

Hi @slorber ,

I've tried it locally originally on a new docusaurus repo, and it didn't work for me. And then I tried in CodeSandbox when I was filling out this issue.

[slorber]

@serpro69 can you provide a GitHub repo reproduction?

I have one that shows it working as expected:

```md
Let's see how to [Create a page](./create-a-page.md).
```

**Result:** Let's see how to [Create a page](./create-a-page.md).

https://github.com/slorber/docusaurus-starter/edit/main/docs/tutorial-basics/markdown-features.mdx

https://tutorial.docusaurus.io/docs/tutorial-basics/markdown-features#links

[serpro69]

Yes, was just making it :)

Here's the repo - https://github.com/serpro69/docusaurus-10152

For this example I ran npx create-docusaurus@latest docusaurus-10152 classic, then added two pages in the docs dir, one of them containing a link to another page.

Then started docusaurus with npm run start, which results in the same incorrect behavior.

[serpro69]

OK, a bit more debugging and it seems the problem is with start command. When I try to first build and then serve, it works as expected.
Is this expected behavior with the start command then? Or is it broken for that particular use-case?

[slorber]

It's not expected that the start command behave differently. Can you share a non-Codesandbox repro (ideally GitHub) where I can see the problem in action with the start command?

[serpro69]

It's not expected that the start command behave differently. Can you share a non-Codesandbox repro (ideally GitHub) where I can see the problem in action with the start command?

Yes, already did above ;)

Here's the repo - https://github.com/serpro69/docusaurus-10152

[slorber]

@serpro69 when running your GitHub repro, I can see that it works as expected, both start and build commands.

https://pr.new/github.com/serpro69/docusaurus-10152

The UI works, the links are resolved correctly

And there's no markdown link resolution error in the console:

[serpro69]

Hmm, I've just cloned my repo and it also works fine for me on a fresh clone.

I then tried to re-initialize via npx create-docusaurus from scratch and it doesn't work:

I wonder if it's an issue that could be related to npx create-docusaurus command then.

---

UPD: I tried to remove node_modules dir, then run npm ci and then npm run start and that solved the issue.
I think some broken/incorrect dependency is introduced via npx maybe? Which is resolved if you remove all pulled dependencies and re-install them.

Anyways, it looks like this does in fact work as expected, so long as you clean up node_modules after running the initial npx create-docusaurus command

[slorber]

hmmm, weird, I don't know what's happening here 😅

Let's consider it works for now