Official Plugin

gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files

Copies local files linked to/from Markdown (.md|.markdown) files to the root directory (i.e., public folder).

A sample markdown file:

---
title: My awesome blog post
---

Hey everyone, I just made a sweet PDF with lots of interesting stuff in it.

[Download it now](my-awesome-pdf.pdf)

When you build your site:

The my-awesome-pdf.pdf file will be copied to the root directory (i.e., public/some-really-long-contenthash/my-awesome-pdf.pdf) and the generated HTML page will be modified to point to it.

Note: The my-awesome-pdf.pdf file should be in the same directory as the markdown file.

Install plugin

npm install --save gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files

Add plugin to Gatsby Config

Default settings:

Add gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files plugin as a plugin to gatsby-transformer-remark:

// In your gatsby-config.js

// add plugin by name only
plugins: [
  {
    resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
    options: {
      plugins: [`gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files`],
    },
  },
]

Custom settings:

// In your gatsby-config.js

// add plugin by name and options
plugins: [
  {
    resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
    options: {
      plugins: [
        {
          resolve: `gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files`,
          options: {
            destinationDir: `path/to/dir`,
            ignoreFileExtensions: [`png`, `jpg`, `jpeg`, `bmp`, `tiff`],
          },
        },
      ],
    },
  },
]

Custom set where to copy the files using `destinationDir`

By default, all files will be copied to the root directory (i.e., public folder) in the following format: contentHash/fileName.ext.

For example, [Download it now](my-awesome-pdf.pdf) will copy the file my-awesome-pdf.pdf to something like public/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a/my-awesome-pdf.pdf

Simple usage

To change this, set destinationDir to a path of your own choosing (i.e., path/to/dir).

// In your gatsby-config.js
plugins: [
  {
    resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
    options: {
      plugins: [
        {
          resolve: "gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files",
          options: {
            destinationDir: "path/to/dir",
          },
        },
      ],
    },
  },
]

So now, [Download it now](my-awesome-pdf.pdf) will copy the file my-awesome-pdf.pdf to public/path/to/dir/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a/my-awesome-pdf.pdf

Advanced usage

For more advanced control, set destinationDir to a function expression using properties name and/or hash to specify the path.

Examples:

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `${f.name}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `${f.hash}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/downloads/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a/my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `downloads/${f.hash}/${f.name}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/downloads/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a-my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `downloads/${f.hash}-${f.name}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/my-awesome-pdf/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `${f.name}/${f.hash}`

# save `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` to `public/path/to/dir/hello-my-awesome-pdf+2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a_world.pdf`
destinationDir: f => `path/to/dir/hello-${f.name}+${f.hash}_world`

Note: Make sure you use either name or hash property in your function expression! If you don’t include both name and hash properties in your function expression, gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files plugin will resolve the function expression to a string value and use default settings as a fallback mechanism to prevent your local files from getting copied with the same name (causing files to get overwritten).

# Note: `my-awesome-pdf.pdf` is saved to `public/hello/2a0039f3a61f4510f41678438e4c863a/my-awesome-pdf.pdf`
# because `name` and `hash` properties are not referenced in the function expression.
# So these function expressions are treated the same way
destinationDir: _ => `hello`
destinationDir: `hello`

Caveat: Error thrown if `destinationDir` points outside the root directory (i.e. `public` folder)

Note: An error will be thrown if the destination points outside the root directory (i.e. public folder).

Correct:

# saves to `public/path/to/dir/`
destinationDir: `path/to/dir`

# saves to `public/path/to/dir/`
destinationDir: _ => `path/to/dir`

# saves to `public/path/to/dir/fileName.ext`
destinationDir: f => `path/to/dir/${f.name}`

# saves to `public/contentHash.ext`
destinationDir: f => `${f.hash}`

Error thrown:

# cannot save outside root directory (i.e., outside `public` folder)
destinationDir: `../path/to/dir`
destinationDir: _ => `../path/to/dir`
destinationDir: f => `../path/to/dir/${f.name}`
destinationDir: f => `../${f.hash}`

Custom set which file types to ignore using `ignoreFileExtensions`

By default, the file types that this plugin ignores are: png, jpg, jpeg, bmp, tiff.

For example, [Download it now](image.png) will be ignored and not copied to the root dir (i.e. public folder)

To change this, set ignoreFileExtensions to an array of extensions to ignore (i.e., an empty array [] to ignore nothing).

// In your gatsby-config.js
plugins: [
  {
    resolve: `gatsby-transformer-remark`,
    options: {
      plugins: [
        {
          resolve: "gatsby-remark-copy-linked-files",
          options: {
            // `ignoreFileExtensions` defaults to [`png`, `jpg`, `jpeg`, `bmp`, `tiff`]
            // as we assume you'll use gatsby-remark-images to handle
            // images in markdown as it automatically creates responsive
            // versions of images.
            //
            // If you'd like to not use gatsby-remark-images and just copy your
            // original images to the public directory, set
            // `ignoreFileExtensions` to an empty array.
            ignoreFileExtensions: [],
          },
        },
      ],
    },
  },
]

So now, [Download it now](image.png) will be copied to the root dir (i.e. public folder)

Supported Markdown tags

img - ![Image](my-img.png)
link - [Link](myFile.txt)

Supported HTML tags

<img />
<video />
<audio />
<a />

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