# How should I create a link to a nearby file? \[answered\]

**URL:** <https://talk.commonmark.org/t/how-should-i-create-a-link-to-a-nearby-file-answered/2460>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [May 29, 2017, 11:37am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/how-should-i-create-a-link-to-a-nearby-file-answered/2460 "2017-05-29T11:37:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![d3vid](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/d3vid/32/1149_2.png) [@d3vid](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/d3vid)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 11:37am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/how-should-i-create-a-link-to-a-nearby-file-answered/2460/1 "2017-05-29T11:37:04Z")

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I am creating a [README.md](http://README.md) file and in it I want to link to [COPYING.md](http://COPYING.md) in the same directory. I tried the following markup, but the link is not rendered:

```markdown
See <COPYING.md> for details.

```

So I did this instead and it worked:

```markdown
See [COPYING.md](COPYING.md) for details.

```

_Should_ the first option have worked, according to the CommonMark spec? (i.e. should I report it as a bug to the maintainer)

If this isn’t in the spec, would it be a candidate for a suggestion? The first options is less verbose and more readable in regular unrendered text.

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**Author:** ![mity](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/mity/32/1040_2.png) [@mity](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/mity)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 12:38pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/how-should-i-create-a-link-to-a-nearby-file-answered/2460/2 "2017-05-29T12:38:29Z")

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Autolinks (`<....>`) require scheme specification (e.g. `<http://....>`), and for good reason as there might be otherwise problems e.g. with `<sometag>xxxx</sometag>`.

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**Author:** ![jgm](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/jgm/32/1360_2.png) [@jgm](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/jgm)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 12:44pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/how-should-i-create-a-link-to-a-nearby-file-answered/2460/3 "2017-05-29T12:44:34Z")

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+++ David Seaward [May 29 17 11:47]:

> Should the first option have worked, according to the CommonMark spec?  
> (i.e. should I report it as a bug to the maintainer)

No. An absolute URI is required for an autolink:  
[http://spec.commonmark.org/0.27/#uri-autolink](http://spec.commonmark.org/0.27/#uri-autolink)

> If this isn’t in the spec, would it be a candidate for a suggestion?  
> The first options is less verbose and more readable in regular  
> unrendered text.

The problem is that raw HTML tags are allowed in Markdown,  
so one would need some heuristic to distinguish them from  
autolinks. Requiring an absolute URI does that, and is  
also consistent with John Gruber’s Markdown syntax  
description and with standard practice in Markdown  
implementations.

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**Author:** ![d3vid](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/d3vid/32/1149_2.png) [@d3vid](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/d3vid)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2017, 1:13pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/how-should-i-create-a-link-to-a-nearby-file-answered/2460/4 "2017-05-29T13:13:31Z")

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Thanks for the clarification.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![timhoffm](https://cdn.commonmark.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/t/9e8a1a/32.png) [@timhoffm](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/timhoffm)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2019, 12:13pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/how-should-i-create-a-link-to-a-nearby-file-answered/2460/5 "2019-04-23T12:13:41Z")

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I was wondering over this as well. `[COPYING.md](COPYING.md)` seems unnecessarily redundant.

I understand that autolinks cannot do the jobs.

Would it alternatively be reasonable to allow for an empty link text `[](COPYING.md)` and in that case use the link destination also as the link text?