remark-breaks

What is remark-breaks?

The remark-breaks package is a plugin for the remark markdown processor that automatically converts hard line breaks in markdown text into HTML `<br>` tags. This can be particularly useful for ensuring that line breaks in markdown are preserved in the rendered HTML output.

What are remark-breaks's main functionalities?

Automatic Line Break Conversion

This feature allows you to automatically convert hard line breaks in markdown text into HTML `<br>` tags. In the example, the markdown text 'Hello\nWorld' will be converted to 'Hello<br>World' in the HTML output.

const remark = require('remark');
const breaks = require('remark-breaks');

const markdown = 'Hello\nWorld';

remark()
  .use(breaks)
  .process(markdown, function (err, file) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log(String(file));
  });

Other packages similar to remark-breaks

remark-gfm

The remark-gfm package adds support for GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) to remark. It includes features like strikethrough, tables, task lists, and automatic URL linking. While it does not specifically focus on line breaks, it provides a broader set of markdown enhancements compared to remark-breaks.

remark-html

The remark-html package is used to convert markdown to HTML. It does not specifically handle line breaks but can be used in conjunction with other plugins like remark-breaks to achieve the desired output. It provides a more general solution for converting markdown to HTML.

README

remark-breaks

remark plugin to support hard breaks without needing spaces or escapes (turns enters into <br>s).

Contents

• What is this?
• When should I use this?
• Install
• Use
• API
  • unified().use(remarkBreaks)
• Syntax
• Syntax tree
• Types
• Compatibility
• Security
• Related
• Contribute
• License

What is this?

This package is a unified (remark) plugin to turn soft line endings (enters) into hard breaks (<br>s)

When should I use this?

This plugin is useful if you want to display user content closer to how it was authored, because when a user includes a line ending, it’ll show as such. GitHub does this in a few places (comments, issues, PRs, and releases), but it’s not semantic according to HTML and not compliant to markdown. Markdown already has two ways to include hard breaks, namely trailing spaces and escapes (note that ␠ represents a normal space):

lorem␠␠
ipsum

lorem\
ipsum

Both will turn into <br>s. If you control who authors content or can document how markdown works, it’s recommended to use escapes instead.

Install

This package is ESM only. In Node.js (version 16+), install with npm:

npm install remark-breaks

In Deno with esm.sh:

import remarkBreaks from 'https://esm.sh/remark-breaks@4'

In browsers with esm.sh:

<script type="module">
  import remarkBreaks from 'https://esm.sh/remark-breaks@4?bundle'
</script>

Use

Say we have the following file example.md (note: there are no spaces after a):

Mars is
the fourth planet

…and a module example.js:

import rehypeStringify from 'rehype-stringify'
import remarkBreaks from 'remark-breaks'
import remarkParse from 'remark-parse'
import remarkRehype from 'remark-rehype'
import {read} from 'to-vfile'
import {unified} from 'unified'

const file = await unified()
  .use(remarkParse)
  .use(remarkBreaks)
  .use(remarkRehype)
  .use(rehypeStringify)
  .process(await read('example.md'))

console.log(String(file))

…then running node example.js yields:

<p>Mars is<br>
the fourth planet</p>

👉 Note: Without remark-breaks, you’d get:

<p>Mars is
the fourth planet</p>

API

This package exports no identifiers. The default export is remarkBreaks.

unified().use(remarkBreaks)

Support hard breaks without needing spaces or escapes (turns enters into <br>s).

Parameters

There are no parameters.

Returns

Transform (Transformer).

Syntax

This plugin looks for markdown line endings (\r, \n, and \r\n) preceded by zero or more spaces and tabs.

Syntax tree

This plugin adds mdast Break nodes to the syntax tree. These are the same nodes that represent breaks with spaces or escapes.

Types

This package is fully typed with TypeScript. It exports no additional types.

Compatibility

Projects maintained by the unified collective are compatible with maintained versions of Node.js.

When we cut a new major release, we drop support for unmaintained versions of Node. This means we try to keep the current release line, remark-breaks@^4, compatible with Node.js 16.

This plugin works with unified version 6+ and remark version 7+.

Security

Use of remark-breaks does not involve rehype (hast) or user content so there are no openings for cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

Related

• remark-gfm — support GFM (autolink literals, footnotes, strikethrough, tables, tasklists)
• remark-github — link references to commits, issues, and users, in the same way that GitHub does
• remark-directive — support directives
• remark-frontmatter — support frontmatter (YAML, TOML, and more)
• remark-math — support math

Contribute

See contributing.md in remarkjs/.github for ways to get started. See support.md for ways to get help.

This project has a code of conduct. By interacting with this repository, organization, or community you agree to abide by its terms.

License

MIT © Titus Wormer