mdbook serve creates files linked from summary if they do not exist

[acheronfail]

I'm relatively sure that this is a "feature" and not a bug, but the behaviour surprised me.

I created a SUMMARY.md like the following:

# Summary

- [Chapter 1](./chapter_1.md)
- [Chapter 2](#)

With the # uri as a placeholder since I hadn't yet created the file.
When I ran mdbook serve I was surprised to discover that the src/# file existed!

I guess this may be the behaviour described in the User Guide here:

When a SUMMARY.md file already exists, the init command will first parse it and generate the missing files according to the paths used in the SUMMARY.md. This allows you to think and create the whole structure of your book and then let mdBook generate it for you.

Should this also happen when running mdbook serve?

• If so, it should probably be documented.
• If not, should the behaviour be toggle-able via a CLI flag?

[acheronfail]

This also adds an unfortunate side effect that if I run mdbook serve, and delete the file src/chapter_1.md, then when mdbook reloads it recreates the file I just deleted.

Which is another thing that seems counter-intuitive to me, since if I want to remove a note/delete a file, then I must remove it first from the SUMMARY.md and then delete the file itself...

[ehuss]

Yea, that's intentional. It could probably be documented better.

As for the #, that's a little odd. It could probably detect fragment-only urls and reject them.

Also, FYI, the next release will support "draft" chapters, which allow you to add entries that won't automatically create new files (#1153).

[bikeshedder]

The "draft" chapters feature has landed in 0.4.0. I think this issue can be closed.

[ehuss]

Probably should still update the build, serve, and watch documentation to mention that missing files in the SUMMARY are auto-generated.