[Docutils-develop] [docutils:feature-requests] Re: #91 Include directive path argument should support a configurable root.

[Günter M. <mi...@us...>]

We are here at the Docutils (not Sphinx) where there is no `conf.py` nor a "project directory". So the "natural" and backwards compatible default for the new "include_root" setting is the filesystem root. 
In docutils there is only *one* primary input file (which may include other files via rST directives). Users are free to include files from anywhere in the file system. 
The new setting should help users to organize the to-be-included files and use simpler paths inside the rST source.


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**[feature-requests:#91] Include directive path argument should support a configurable root.**

**Status:** pending
**Group:** Default
**Created:** Tue May 03, 2022 04:03 PM UTC by Michal Urbanski
**Last Updated:** Sun Nov 19, 2023 09:39 PM UTC
**Owner:** nobody


I'm building a static website using restructuredtext and I'm really annoyed by the lack of support for root-relative paths.

I have already implemented multiple directive plugins for my website build process, some of which use external files in a different format. They use the convention that if a path begins with /, they are relative to the root directory of the project.

IMO the requirement for relative paths is very limiting - I could have a directory with files intended for inclusion but:

- I would need to use `../../` which is very ugly
- relative paths are different depending on the current file path - this is very fragile and limits 

An additional argument is that C and C++ have been using #include for like 40 years and relative paths (while sometimes useful) are only for specific cases. The leading convention is to use root-relative paths.

I could implement another plugin for it but ... copy-pasting docutils own code only to change few lines is definitely smelly.


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