How do I render a file but not include it as a chapter in a book project?

[HarunCelikOtto]

Description

Hello,

I'm wondering if it is possible to have quarto render a qmd file in a book project without it actually being a part of the chapters of the book.

The idea is that as I am developing the book, I want to repurpose some of my writing into another file using the same bib file and images\ directory. I basically want to take advantage of Quarto assigning the project as root directory for files which are part of the project but not going to be rendered with the full book.

Assuming that my project directory and my _quarto.yml file look like the following.

Render-Testing
├── _quarto.yml
├── book-chapters
│   ├── chapter-one
│       └── ch1-sect-1.qmd
├── images
│   ├── chapter-one-imgs
│       └── methods.png
├── index.qmd
├── intro.qmd
├── references.bib
└── references.qmd

project:
  type: book
  render:
    - "/book-chapters/chapter-one/ch1-sect-1.qmd"

book:
  title: "Render-Testing"
  author: "Norah Jones"
  date: "8/19/2024"
  chapters:
    - index.qmd
    - intro.qmd
    - references.qmd

bibliography: references.bib

format:
  html:
    theme: cosmo
  pdf:
    documentclass: scrreprt

I would like to be able to render the contents of book-chapters/chapter-one/ch1-sect-1.qmd, by running the quarto render command. This should include the correct paths to the bib file as well as to the images/. Running quarto render will not render the document, only those indicated in the chapters will render.

Contents of ch1-sect-1.qmd.

---
title: Just Some Testing
---

Testing citations with [@knuth84]

Also some images.

![Test Image](/images/chapter-one-imgs/methods.png)

Output where the qmd file is specified in quarto render.

 quarto render  book-chapters/chapter-one/ch1-sect-1.qmd 
 quarto preview book-chapters/chapter-one/ch1-sect-1.qmd

[mcanouil]

As we cannot use your code, it's hard to reply.

1. Create a book

quarto create project book

2. Remove - summary.qmd from _quarto.yml

3. Render the book quarto render

4. Render the document not referenced quarto render summary.qmd

Everything works fine.

If you expect quarto render to render everything that is not how it works currently.

About project.render (https://quarto.org/docs/websites/#render-targets), I don't know if it is supported at all in books.
CC @cscheid

[jarad]

@HarunCelikOtto I feel like I just ran into this issue as well. In this commit, I needed the macros.qmd file to be rendered, but it never render when using quarto render. If this file was added as a chapter, then the file was rendered. But, like you, I didn't want it included as a chapter.

@mcanouil I was expecting quarto to render every qmd file in the project directory because it says so here. I am realizing now that this is what quarto does for websites and not necessarily for books that both @HarunCelikOtto and I are using. The documentation for books does not include the same section on what we should expect to be rendered. And apparently books do not render all qmd files in the project directory.

This post seems to have workaround. But it would be nice to have something builtin to the structure of quarto books that would allow you to render (in a particular order) files that are not chapters similar to what is available for websites.

[mcanouil]

It's unclear what your issues are here.
A small reproducible example shared as a Git repository would help.

In Quarto, paths are resolved relatively to the document calling the paths. A leading / means relative to the root of the project where _quarto.yml is.
This should work and as far as I know, it does.

[mcanouil]

To be clear, stating "I have a problem" or "it does not work" do not make it easy for others to help you (this is not specific to Quarto or software).
We need your help in order to provide any assistance.

[HarunCelikOtto]

It's unclear what your issues are here. A small reproducible example shared as a Git repository would help.

In Quarto, paths are resolved relatively to the document calling the paths. A leading / means relative to the root of the project where _quarto.yml is. This should work and as far as I know, it does.

I thought my reply to this thread stating that the root path issue was clear, I apologize.

What I tried to illustrate with my first example is that in a book project, a leading / does not refer to the root of the project if the file is in a sub directory of the root.

As a reproducible example. I have a new quarto book project and the only things I am doing are adding a testing image called test.png, a new directory called newdir and a file inside called new.qmd so that the directory tree looks like the following.

test
├── _quarto.yml
├── cover.png
├── imgs
│ └── test.png
├── index.qmd
├── intro.qmd
├── newdir
│ └── new.qmd
├── references.bib
├── references.qmd
└── summary.qmd

The new.qmd file is not a chapter in the _quarto.yml file and contains the following text inside.

Here is an image ![Some Image](/imgs/test.png)

My expectation is that when I run quarto render newdir/new.qmd, the file should render with the referenced image. Instead, the image doesn't render at all.

[mcanouil]

Sorry, but showing a tree is not a reproducible example.
A reproducible example is something that readers can use.
You can't expect/ask users to build up the directory tree, figure out the content of the files, the command to run and then expect them to see the same thing as you especially without knowing the version of Quarto CLI being used.

[HarunCelikOtto]

Here is a repository of the directory I was talking about.
https://github.com/HarunCelikOtto/Quarto_Book_Test

I am using Quarto CLI version 1.6.40