Start absolute path (path from vault folder) with a leading slash /

[Bannings]

+1

I need for Jekyll

[CawlinTeffid]

@WhiteNoise

A leading / also generally means “from the root of the filesystem” not “from the root of the vault”. I am not sure how that would help with compatibility.

“Absolute path in vault” is essentially a root relative URL (and should probably be called something more like that). Root relative URLs are indicated with a leading slash. As some have mentioned, the leading slash would make Obsidian paths usable on the web and compatible with various web-authoring software. I don’t have experience with project-aware text editors like others have mentioned, but it makes sense to me that they use the root relative format and that they treat Obsidian’s paths as current-file relative.

Given that, Obsidian should use a leading slash.

@WhiteNoise

The reason why this is not added is to support nested vaults and it’s not universally clear if / means the root of vault or the root of the filesystem

It’s unfortunate that an officially unsupported niche practice is causing Obsidian to stick to a nonstandard, incompatible approach to paths. I’m not saying Obsidian should leave those users in the lurch, but I think it should treat web authors and users of project-aware editors with the same consideration — especially considering that one of the big advantages of storing notes in text files is the ability to use other tools with them.

Distinguishing a root relative path from an absolute path shouldn’t be an issue, because in Obsidian an absolute path is required to be an external link, using the file:// protocol. Do any editors support linking to files in Markdown syntax without that protocol (excluding wiki style Markdown links like when using Obsidian’s “shortest path”)?