bug: Image rendering doesn't work with relative paths using ../

[fgalan]

Context:

• version (md-to-pdf -v): 2.8.2
• platform (Unix, macOS, Windows): Debian Linux
• node version: 8.17.0

Describe the bug:

As far as I checked md-to-pdf is able to render images in resulting PDF correctly when the image in the markdown file doesn't use ../. For instance if I have:

<img src="doc_images/chart/table.png"> 

It works.

However, if I have a relative path using ../ it doesn't work and I get the usual "broker image" thumb in the PDF:

For instance:

<img src="../doc_images/charts/table.png">

This is how I call md-to-pdf (pathnames are not the actual ones, for the sake of simplicity, the important thing here is that I'm not using any parameter)

md-to-pdf /path/to/file.md document.pdf

It is possible to use relative path with ../? What I'm doing wrong in that case?

(Sorry if this is not a bug but a known limitation or a bad usage on my side... I have looked at the documentation at https://github.com/simonhaenisch/md-to-pdf/blob/master/readme.md but I haven't found anything about this)

[simonhaenisch]

Hi, you should be able to work around this with the --basedir option:

The current working directory (process.cwd()) serves as the base directory of the file server by default. This can be adjusted with the --basedir flag (or equivalent config option).

Let's say your file is /var/my-project/docs/file.md and your image is /var/my-project/doc_images/picture.png, then you'd have to use /var/my-project as the base dir, and then the ../ part of the image path (../doc_images/picture.png) should be able to be resolved correctly.

md-to-pdf /var/my-project/docs/file.md --basedir /var/my-project

(relative paths should work fine as well)

Can you give it a try please and let me know if it doesn't work?

[fgalan]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to use the --basedir option.

However, looking to the available options it doesn't appear:

$ md-to-pdf --help

  $ md-to-pdf [options] [path/to/file.md] [path/to/output.pdf]

  Options:

    -h, --help ............... Output usage information
    -v, --version ............ Output version
    -w, --watch .............. Watch the current file(s) for changes
    --stylesheet ............. Path to a local or remote stylesheet (can be passed multiple times)
    --css .................... String of styles
    --body-class ............. Classes to be added to the body tag (can be passed multiple times)
    --highlight-style ........ Style to be used by highlight.js (default: github)
    --marked-options ......... Set custom options for marked (as a JSON string)
    --pdf-options ............ Set custom options for the generated PDF (as a JSON string)
    --launch-options ......... Set custom launch options for Puppeteer
    --md-file-encoding ....... Set the file encoding for the markdown file
    --stylesheet-encoding .... Set the file encoding for the stylesheet
    --as-html ................ Output as HTML instead
    --config-file ............ Path to a JSON or JS configuration file
    --devtools ............... Open the browser with devtools instead of creating PDF
    --debug .................. Show more output on errors

Maybe I'm using an old version and I should upgrade? In which version --basedir was implemented?

Thanks!

[simonhaenisch]

Yup, you'll need to update to version 3: npm i -g md-to-pdf@latest.

Edit: the fix to make these kinds of paths work has also been added in version 3, I doubt it's possible at all with version 2.

[fgalan]

Thanks for the feedback!

I have upgraded my setup to md-to-pdf 3.0.0 with node v10. Now I have:

$ node --version
v10.0.0
$ npm --version
5.6.0
$ md-to-pdf --version
3.0.0

However, I get an ugly error when I try to use md-to-pdf, even in the simple case (without --basedir):

+ md-to-pdf /home/fermin/src/project/docs/component/chart.md /tmp/tmp.oCTOYwhj2j/zip/component/chart.pdf
  ✖ generating PDF from /home/fermin/src/project/docs/component/chart.md
    → Cannot read property 'readFile' of undefined
  ✖ generating PDF from /tmp/tmp.oCTOYwhj2j/zip/component/chart.pdf
    → Cannot read property 'readFile' of undefined
{ ListrError: Something went wrong
    at tasks.then (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/node_modules/listr/index.js:102:18)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:178:7)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:721:11)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:228:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:575:3)
  name: 'ListrError',
  errors: 
   [ TypeError: Cannot read property 'readFile' of undefined
    at Object.exports.readFile (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/dist/lib/read-file.js:13:97)
    at Object.exports.convertMdToPdf (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/dist/lib/md-to-pdf.js:17:29)
    at Task.task (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/dist/cli.js:106:33)
    at Promise.resolve.then.then.skipped (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/node_modules/listr/lib/task.js:167:30)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:178:7)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:721:11)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:228:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:575:3),
     TypeError: Cannot read property 'readFile' of undefined
    at Object.exports.readFile (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/dist/lib/read-file.js:13:97)
    at Object.exports.convertMdToPdf (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/dist/lib/md-to-pdf.js:17:29)
    at Task.task (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/dist/cli.js:106:33)
    at Promise.resolve.then.then.skipped (/home/fermin/.nvm/versions/node/v10.0.0/lib/node_modules/md-to-pdf/node_modules/listr/lib/task.js:167:30)
    at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:178:7)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:721:11)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:228:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:575:3) ],
  context: {} }

I have checked the input file exists:

$ ls /home/fermin/src/project/docs/component/chart.md -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 fermin fermin 2625 ene 28 12:51 /home/fermin/src/project/docs/component/chart.md

The placeholder for the output file also exists:

$ ls /tmp/tmp.oCTOYwhj2j -ld
drwx------ 3 fermin fermin 4096 mar 27 19:58 /tmp/tmp.oCTOYwhj2j

Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

[simonhaenisch]

Sorry, that's because Node 10.0.0 is too low, you need at least 10.17 (or at least 11.14), because that's the minimum version to provide the fs.promises API. I need to update the engines field so that a warning is thrown. However this is not as simple as setting it to >=10.17 because e. g. Node 11.0 is higher than 10.17 but still doesn't work (it was backported from 11.14 into 10.17).

[simonhaenisch]

I figured out how to set the engine field correctly and published a new version (3.0.1).

I'll close this for now but if you're still having problems with relative paths, please feel free to re-open this issue! Thanks.

[fgalan]

After installing node 10.17.0 and getting familiar with the CLI of the 3.0.0 version, I finally solved the problem and now I'm able to render my documents without broken images. Thanks!

Some additional feedback, in the case you want to take it into account:

• Documentation at https://github.com/simonhaenisch/md-to-pdf#installation could include information about required node versions to run the software
• Maybe the utilization of --basedir to solve the problem of broken images (similar to the information you provided me at bug: Image rendering doesn't work with relative paths using ../ #70 (comment)) could be added to the documentation. The --basedir is currently included in documentation, but very briefly and I think it could be expanded.