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Improve permalinks docs
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See jekyll#5630 for more details on the update. 

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Expand Up @@ -4,27 +4,62 @@ title: Permalinks
permalink: /docs/permalinks/
---

Jekyll supports a flexible way to build your site’s URLs. You can specify the
permalinks for your site through the [Configuration](../configuration/) or in
the [YAML Front Matter](../frontmatter/) for each post. You’re free to choose
one of the built-in styles to create your links or craft your own. The default
style is `date`.
Jekyll supports a flexible way to build the permalinks for your pages, posts, and collections. A permalink is the URL for the page, post, or collection (excluding the domain name or directory folder).

Permalinks are constructed by creating a template URL where dynamic elements
are represented by colon-prefixed keywords. For example, the default `date`
permalink is defined according to the format `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title.html`.
You construct permalinks by creating a template URL where dynamic elements are represented by colon-prefixed keywords. The default template permalink is `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title.html`. Each of the colon-prefixed keywords is a template variable.

You’re free to construct your own permalink style using the available template variables or choose one of the built-in permalink styles (such as `date`) that automatically use a template-variable pattern.

## Where to configure permalinks

You can configure your site's permalinks through the [Configuration]({% link _docs/configuration.md %}) file or in the [Front Matter]({% link _docs/frontmatter.md %}) for each post, page, or collection.

Setting permalink styles in your configuration file applies the setting globally in your project. You configure permalinks in your `_config.yml` file like this:

```yaml
permalink: /:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title.html
```
If you don't specify any permalink setting, Jekyll uses the above pattern as the default.
The permalink can also be set using a built-in permalink style:
```yaml
permalink: date
```
`date` is the same as `:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title.html`, the default. See [Built-in Permalink Styles](#builtinpermalinkstyles) below for more options.

Setting the permalink in your post, page, or collection's front matter overrides any global settings. Here's an example:

```yaml
---
title: My page title
permalink: /mypageurl/
---
```

Even if your configuration file specifies the `date` style, the URL for this page would be `http://somedomain.com/mypageurl/`.

{% comment %}this note needs clarification
<div class="note info">
<h5>Specifying permalinks through the YAML Front Matter</h5>
<p>
Built-in permalink styles are not recognized in YAML Front Matter. So
<code>permalink: pretty</code> will not work, but the equivalent
<code>/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title/</code>
using template variables will.
</p>
<h5>Specifying permalinks through the YAML Front Matter</h5>
<p>Built-in permalink styles are not recognized in YAML Front Matter. As a result, <code>permalink: pretty</code> will not work, but the equivalent <code>/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title/</code> using template variables will.</p>
</div>
{% endcomment %}

When you use permalinks that omit the `.html` file extension (called "clean URLs") Jekyll builds the file as index.html placed inside a folder with the page's name. For example:

```
├── mypageurl
│   └── index.html
```

Servers automatically load the index.html file inside of any folder, so users can simply navigate to `http://somedomain.com/mypageurl` to get to `mypageurl/index.html`.

## Template variables for permalinks {#template-variables}

## Template variables
The following table lists the template variables available for permalinks. You can use these variables in the `permalink` property in your config file.

<div class="mobile-side-scroller">
<table>
Expand All @@ -40,47 +75,47 @@ permalink is defined according to the format `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:ti
<p><code>year</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Year from the Post’s filename</p>
<p>Year from the post's filename</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><code>month</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Month from the Post’s filename</p>
<p>Month from the post's filename</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><code>i_month</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Month from the Post’s filename without leading zeros.</p>
<p>Month from the post's filename without leading zeros.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><code>day</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Day from the Post’s filename</p>
<p>Day from the post's filename</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><code>i_day</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Day from the Post’s filename without leading zeros.</p>
<p>Day from the post's filename without leading zeros.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p><code>short_year</code></p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Year from the Post’s filename without the century.</p>
<p>Year from the post's filename without the century.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
Expand All @@ -89,7 +124,7 @@ permalink is defined according to the format `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:ti
</td>
<td>
<p>
Hour of the day, 24-hour clock, zero-padded from the post’s <code>date</code> front matter. (00..23)
Hour of the day, 24-hour clock, zero-padded from the post's <code>date</code> front matter. (00..23)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
Expand All @@ -99,7 +134,7 @@ permalink is defined according to the format `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:ti
</td>
<td>
<p>
Minute of the hour from the post’s <code>date</code> front matter. (00..59)
Minute of the hour from the post's <code>date</code> front matter. (00..59)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
Expand All @@ -109,7 +144,7 @@ permalink is defined according to the format `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:ti
</td>
<td>
<p>
Second of the minute from the post’s <code>date</code> front matter. (00..59)
Second of the minute from the post's <code>date</code> front matter. (00..59)
</p>
</td>
</tr>
Expand All @@ -130,8 +165,8 @@ permalink is defined according to the format `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:ti
</td>
<td>
<p>
Slugified title from the document’s filename ( any character
except numbers and letters is replaced as hyphen ). May be
Slugified title from the document’s filename (any character
except numbers and letters is replaced as hyphen). May be
overridden via the document’s <code>slug</code> YAML front matter.
</p>
</td>
Expand All @@ -142,7 +177,7 @@ permalink is defined according to the format `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:ti
</td>
<td>
<p>
The specified categories for this Post. If a post has multiple
The specified categories for this post. If a post has multiple
categories, Jekyll will create a hierarchy (e.g. <code>/category1/category2</code>).
Also Jekyll automatically parses out double slashes in the URLs,
so if no categories are present, it will ignore this.
Expand All @@ -153,10 +188,11 @@ permalink is defined according to the format `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:ti
</table>
</div>

## Built-in permalink styles
Note that all template variables relating to time or categories are available to posts only.

While you can specify a custom permalink style using [template variables](#template-variables),
Jekyll also provides the following built-in styles for convenience.
## Built-in permalink styles {#builtinpermalinkstyles}

Although you can specify a custom permalink pattern using [template variables](#template-variables), Jekyll also provides the following built-in styles for convenience.

<div class="mobile-side-scroller">
<table>
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -203,26 +239,11 @@ Jekyll also provides the following built-in styles for convenience.
</table>
</div>

## Pages and collections

The `permalink` configuration setting specifies the permalink style used for
posts. Pages and collections each have their own default permalink style; the
default style for pages is `/:path/:basename` and the default for collections is
`/:collection/:path`.

These styles are modified to match the suffix style specified in the post
permalink setting. For example, a permalink style of `pretty`, which contains a
trailing slash, will update page permalinks to also contain a trailing slash:
`/:path/:basename/`. A permalink style of `date`, which contains a trailing
file extension, will update page permalinks to also contain a file extension:
`/:path/:basename:output_ext`. The same is true for any custom permalink style.
Rather than typing `permalink: /:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title/`, you can just type `permalink: date`.

The permalink for an individual page or collection document can always be
overridden in the [YAML Front Matter](../frontmatter/) for the page or document.
Additionally, permalinks for a given collection can be customized [in the
collections configuration](../collections/).
## Permalink style examples with posts {#permalink-style-examples}

## Permalink style examples
Here are a few examples to clarify how permalink styles get applied with posts.

Given a post named: `/2009-04-29-slap-chop.md`

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -280,38 +301,71 @@ Given a post named: `/2009-04-29-slap-chop.md`
</table>
</div>

## Extensionless permalinks
## Permalink settings for pages and collections {#pages-and-collections}

Jekyll supports permalinks that contain neither a trailing slash nor a file
extension, but this requires additional support from the web server to properly
serve. When using extensionless permalinks, output files written to disk will
still have the proper file extension (typically `.html`), so the web server
must be able to map requests without file extensions to these files.
The permalink setting in your configuration file specifies the permalink style used for posts, pages, and collections. However, because pages and collections don't have time or categories, these aspects of the permalink style are ignored with pages and collections.

Both [GitHub Pages](../github-pages/) and the Jekyll's built-in WEBrick server
handle these requests properly without any additional work.
For example:

### Apache
* A permalink style of `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title.html` for posts becomes `/:title.html` for pages and collections.
* A permalink style of `pretty` (or `/:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title/`), which omits the file extension and contains a trailing slash, will update page and collection permalinks to also omit the file extension and contain a trailing slash: `/:title/`.
* A permalink style of `date`, which contains a trailing file extension, will update page permalinks to also contain a trailing file extension: `/:title.html`. But no time or category information will be included.

## Permalinks and default paths

The Apache web server has very extensive support for content negotiation and can
handle extensionless URLs by setting the [multiviews][] option in your
`httpd.conf` or `.htaccess` file:
The path to the post or page in the built site differs for posts, pages, and collections:

[multiviews]: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/content-negotiation.html#multiviews
### Posts

No matter how many subfolders you organize your posts into inside the `_posts` folder, all posts are pulled out of those subfolders and flattened into the `_site`'s root directory upon build.

If you use a permalink style that omits the `.html` file extension, each post is rendered as an `index.html` file inside a folder with the post's name (for example, `categoryname/2016/12/01/mypostname/index.html`).

### Pages

Unlike posts, pages are *not* removed from their subfolder directories when you build your site. Pages remain in the same folder structure in which you organized your pages in the source directory, except that the structure is now mirrored in `_site`. (The only exception is if your page has a `permalink` declared its front matter &mdash; in that case, the structure honors the permalink setting instead of the source folder structure.)

As with posts, if you use a permalink style that omits the `.html` file extension, each page is rendered as an `index.html` file inserted inside a folder with the page's name (for example, `mypage/index.html`).

### Collections

By default, collections follow a similar structure in the `_site` folder as pages, except that the path is prefaced by the collection name. For example: `collectionname/mypage.html`. For permalink settings that omit the file extension, the path would be `collection_name/mypage/index.html`.

Collections have their own way of setting permalinks. Additionally, collections have unique template variables available available (such as `path` and `output_ext`). See the [Configuring permalinks for collections]( ../collections#permalinks ) in Collections for more information.

## Flattening pages in \_site on build

If you want to flatten your pages (pull them out of subfolders) in the `_site` directory when your site builds (similar to posts), add the permalink property of each page's front matter:

```
---
title: My page
permalink: mypageurl.html
---
```

## Extensionless permalinks with no trailing slashes {#extensionless-permalinks}

Jekyll supports permalinks that contain neither a trailing slash nor a file extension, but this requires additional support from the web server to properly serve. When using extensionless permalinks, output files written to disk will still have the proper file extension (typically `.html`), so the web server must be able to map requests without file extensions to these files.

Both [GitHub Pages](../github-pages/) and the Jekyll's built-in WEBrick server handle these requests properly without any additional work.

### Apache

The Apache web server has extensive support for content negotiation and can handle extensionless URLs by setting the [multiviews](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/content-negotiation.html#multiviews) option in your `httpd.conf` or `.htaccess` file:

{% highlight apache %}
Options +MultiViews
{% endhighlight %}

### Nginx

The [try_files][] directive allows you to specify a list of files to search for
to process a request. The following configuration will instruct nginx to search
for a file with an `.html` extension if an exact match for the requested URI is
not found.

[try_files]: http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_core_module.html#try_files
The [try_files](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_core_module.html#try_files) directive allows you to specify a list of files to search for to process a request. The following configuration will instruct nginx to search for a file with an `.html` extension if an exact match for the requested URI is not found.

{% highlight nginx %}
try_files $uri $uri.html $uri/ =404;
{% endhighlight %}

## Linking without regard to permalink styles

You can create links in your topics to other posts, pages, or collection items in a way that is valid no matter what permalink configuration you choose. By using the `link` tag, if you change your permalinks, your links won't break. See [Linking to pages](../templates#link) for more details.

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