GitHub relative link in Markdown file

Question

Is there a way to create a URL anchor, <a>, link from within a Markdown file, to another file within the same repository and branch (aka a link relative to the current branch)?

For example, in the master branch I have a README.md file, which I would like do something like:

# My Project
is really really cool. My Project has a subdir named myLib, see below.

## myLib documentation
see documentation [here](myLib/README.md)

This would allow me to link from one .md to another within the same branch and not have to worry about which branch I'm in (avoid having to do an absolute URL that includes the github.com branch name).

Here is a working example of what I mean:

1. GOTO http://github.com/rynop/testRel, link does not work.
2. GOTO http://github.com/rynop/testRel/blob/master/README.md, link works.

This is expected because at this point the starting URL is in the branch. Now how do I get it to pick up the current branch in the README.md at the root of the repository?

Update: I opened an issue against GitHub for this feature request.

Answer 1

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 2

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)

Answer 3

As of January 31, 2013 Github markdown supports relative links to files.

[a relative link](markdown_file.md)

However, there are a few deficiencies that have been discussed in this comment thread.

As an alternative, you can use Gitdown to construct full URLs to the repository and even make them branch aware, e.g.

{"gitdown": "gitinfo", "name": "url"} // https://github.com/gajus/gitdown
{"gitdown": "gitinfo", "name": "branch"} // master

Gitdown is a GitHub markdown preprocessor. It streamlines common tasks associated with maintaining a documentation page for a GitHub repository, e.g. generating table of contents, including variables, generating URLs and getting information about the repository itself at the time of processing the input. Gitdown seamlessly integrates with your building scripts.

I am the author of the Gitdown library.

Answer 4

GitHub could make this a lot better with minimal work. Here is a work-around.

I think you want something more like

[Your Title](your-project-name/tree/master/your-subfolder)

or to point to the README itself

[README](your-project-name/blob/master/your-subfolder/README.md)

Good Luck

Answer 5

Just wanted to add this because none of the above solutions worked if target link is directory with spaces in it's name. If target link is a directory and it has space then even escaping space with \ doesn't render the link on Github. Only solution worked for me is using %20 for each space.

e.g.: if directory structure is this

Top_dir
|-----README.md
|-----Cur_dir1
      |----Dir A
           |----README.md
      |----Dir B
           |----README.md

To make link to Dir A in README.md present in Top_dir you can do this:

[Dir 1](Cur_dir1/Dir%20A)

Answer 6

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 7

You can use relative URLs from the root of your repo with <a href="">. Assuming your repo is named testRel, put the following in testRel/README.md:

# My Project
is really really cool. My Project has a subdir named myLib, see below.

## myLib docs
see documentation:
    * <a href="testRel/myLib">myLib/</a>
    * <a href="testRel/myLib/README.md">myLib/README.md</a>

Answer 8

This question is pretty old, but it still seems important, as it isn't easy to put relative references from readme.md to wiki pages on Github.

I played around a little bit and this relative link seems to work pretty well:

[Your wiki page](../../wiki/your-wiki-page)

The two ../ will remove /blob/master/ and use your base as a starting point. I haven't tried this on other repositories than Github, though (there may be compatibility issues).

Answer 9

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 10

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.