GitHub relative link in Markdown file

Question

Is there a way to create a URL anchor, , link from within a Markdown file, to another file within the same repository and branch (aka a link relative t

Answer 1

You can link to file, but not to folders, and keep in mind that, Github will add /blob/master/ before your relative link(and folders lacks that part so they cannot be linked, neither with HTML <a> tags or Markdown link).

So, if we have a file in myrepo/src/Test.java, it will have a url like:

https://github.com/WesternGun/myrepo/blob/master/src/Test.java

And to link it in the readme file, we can use:

[This is a link](src/Test.java)

or: <a href="src/Test.java">This is a link</a>.

(I guess, master represents the master branch and it differs when the file is in another branch.)

Answer 2

I am not sure if I see this option here. You can just create a /folder in your repository and use it directly:

[a relative link](/folder/myrelativefile.md)

No blob or tree or repository name is needed, and it works like a charm.

Answer 3

Just follow the format below.

[TEXT TO SHOW](actual URL to navigate)

Answer 4

Update 30th, January 2013, 16 months later:

GitHub Blog Post Relative links in markup files:

Starting today, GitHub supports relative links in markup files.
Now you can link directly between different documentation files, whether you view the documentation on GitHub itself, or locally, using a different markup renderer.

You want examples of link definitions and how they work? Here's some Markdown for you.
Instead of an absolute link:

[a link](https://github.com/user/repo/blob/branch/other_file.md)

…you can use a relative link:

[a relative link](other_file.md)

and we'll make sure it gets linked to user/repo/blob/branch/other_file.md.

If you were using a workaround like [a workaround link](repo/blob/master/other_file.md), you'll have to update your documentation to use the new syntax.

This also means your documentation can now easily stand on its own, without always pointing to GitHub.

---

Update December 20th, 2011:

The GitHub markup issue 84 is currently closed by technoweenie, with the comment:

We tried adding a <base> tag for this, but it causes problems with other relative links on the site.

---

October 12th, 2011:

If you look at the raw source of the README.md of Markdown itself(!), relative paths don't seem to be supported.
You will find references like:

[r2h]: http://github.com/github/markup/tree/master/lib/github/commands/rest2html
[r2hc]: http://github.com/github/markup/tree/master/lib/github/markups.rb#L13

Answer 5

If you want a relative link to your wiki page on GitHub, use this:

Read here: [Some other wiki page](path/to/some-other-wiki-page)

If you want a link to a file in the repository, let us say, to reference some header file, and the wiki page is at the root of the wiki, use this:

Read here: [myheader.h](../tree/master/path/to/myheader.h)

The rationale for the last is to skip the "/wiki" path with "../", and go to the master branch in the repository tree without specifying the repository name, that may change in the future.

Answer 6

For example, you have a repo like the following:

project/
    text.md
    subpro/
       subtext.md
       subsubpro/
           subsubtext.md
       subsubpro2/
           subsubtext2.md

The relative link to subtext.md in text.md might look like this:

[this subtext](subpro/subtext.md)

The relative link to subsubtext.md in text.md might look like this:

[this subsubtext](subpro/subsubpro/subsubtext.md)

The relative link to subtext.md in subsubtext.md might look like this:

[this subtext](../subtext.md)

The relative link to subsubtext2.md in subsubtext.md might look like this:

[this subsubtext2](../subsubpro2/subsubtext2.md)

The relative link to text.md in subsubtext.md might look like this:

[this text](../../text.md)