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markdownpandoc

To pass a variable as a value of the '--template' option

I have an HTML template stored as a string variable, that is, echo $my_custom_html5_template returns

<!DOCTYPE html>
etc.

Is it possible to pass this variable as a value of the --template option?

That is, instead of using

pandoc input.md -s --template="my_custom_html5_template.html5" -o output.htm

I want to use something like

pandoc input.md -s --template=$my_custom_html5_template -o output.htm

Is it possible somehow?

Solution

  • If you're ok with using an extra file, then a custom Lua writer would do the trick.

    --- Lua writer that behaves mostly like the HTML writer,
-- but takes the template from an environment variable.

Writer = function (doc, opts)
  return pandoc.write(doc, {format='html5', extensions=opts.extensions}, opts)
end

Extensions = pandoc.format.extensions 'html5'

Template = os.getenv 'my_custom_html5_template' 
  or pandoc.template.default 'html5'

    Usage:

    pandoc -t my-html-writer.lua -s ...