How to Select Which Files Are Checked

Goal: control exactly which files markdown-checker looks at.

Check a directory or specific files

Pass one or more paths as positional SRC arguments - this is the preferred way to select what to check. Each argument may be a file or a directory (directories are searched recursively):

# A whole directory
markdown-checker . -f check_broken_paths

# Specific files and directories together
markdown-checker README.md docs/ -f check_broken_paths

-d/--dir is kept only for backward compatibility and accepts a single directory; prefer SRC for new commands and workflows:

markdown-checker -d . -f check_broken_paths

Either SRC or -d/--dir must be given; providing neither is a usage error.

Filter by file extension

By default, only .md and .ipynb files are considered. Use -ext/--extensions to change that:

# Only markdown files, no notebooks
markdown-checker . -f check_broken_paths --extensions=.md

See Command-Line Options for the exact comma-separated list syntax.

Skip specific files by name

Use -sf/--skip-files to exclude files by name (not path), regardless of which directory they’re in:

markdown-checker . -f check_broken_paths --skip-files=CHANGELOG.md,LICENSE.md

The default skip list is CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md,SECURITY.md - pass your own list to replace it (it is not merged with the default).

Verify it worked

The “Checked N links in M files” summary line reports how many files were actually scanned; confirm M matches what you expect before relying on the result.