On Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 04:36:56PM +0200, Didier Kryn wrote:
>     Hello guys.
>
>     I'm confused with markdown files. Essentially I'm concerned with
> README.md like one can find in any git store, like git.devuan.org.
>
>     1) If I write a file in the Markdown format, my browser doesn't know how
> to display it.
>
>     2) If I point my browser to the same file through a server at localhost,
> it still can't display it.
>
>     3) If I point the same browser to some README.md file in the git store,
> now it can display it.
>
>     4) If I look at the content of the README.md file, it is just plain
> HTML!
>
>     Is somebody lying, or is there some mechanism in the servers which
> convert md to html, or what else?
>
>     Thanks if one can explain.

It's unfortunate it makes you confused, but the Devuan git store (like
most git stores) performs server side html rendering of a number of
file types, including .md and .adoc, to present them "as rendered". In
fact all files are presented in *some* rendering because the tool like
to add menus and buttons and things around the "raw" file content. E.g
when you view a .png file in the git store, it will end up rendered as
an image rather than than showing the bytes of the file; when you view
a .sh file you'll see the content infused with coloring, etc.

Most rendered presentations include a "raw" button for the server to
publish the file content in "text/plain" form, and even then you will
find that your browser creates an html structure where the file
content is wrapped with a "<pre>" tag.

Afaik for Devuan's git store, .md failes are rendered with "markdown"
from the package with same name, and -adoc files are rendered with
"asciidoctor" from the package.

regards,

Ralph.