Struct MD042NoEmptyLinks 

pub struct MD042NoEmptyLinks {}

Rule MD042: No empty links

See docs/md042.md for full documentation, configuration, and examples.

This rule is triggered when a link has no destination (URL). “Empty links do not lead anywhere and therefore don’t function as links.”

Note: Empty TEXT with a valid URL (e.g., [](url)) is NOT flagged by MD042. While this may be an accessibility concern, it’s not an “empty link” per se.

MkDocs Support

When flavor = "mkdocs" is configured, this rule recognizes two types of valid MkDocs patterns:

1. Auto-References (via mkdocs-autorefs / mkdocstrings)

Backtick-wrapped Python identifiers used for cross-referencing:

[`module.Class`][]     // Python class reference
[`str`][]              // Built-in type reference
[`api.function`][]     // Function reference

References:

• mkdocs-autorefs
• mkdocstrings

2. Paragraph Anchors (via Python-Markdown attr_list extension)

Empty links combined with attributes to create anchor points:

[](){ #my-anchor }              // Basic anchor
[](){ #anchor .class }          // Anchor with CSS class
[](){: #anchor }                // With colon (canonical attr_list syntax)
[](){ .class1 .class2 }         // Classes only

This syntax combines:

• Empty link []() → creates <a href=""></a>
• attr_list syntax { #id } → adds attributes to preceding element
• Result: <a href="" id="my-anchor"></a>

References:

• Python-Markdown attr_list
• MkDocs discussion

Implementation: See is_mkdocs_attribute_anchor

Implementations

impl MD042NoEmptyLinks

pub fn new() -> Self

Trait Implementations

impl Clone for MD042NoEmptyLinks

fn clone(&self) -> MD042NoEmptyLinks

Returns a duplicate of the value.

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Performs copy-assignment from source.

impl Default for MD042NoEmptyLinks

fn default() -> MD042NoEmptyLinks

Returns the “default value” for a type.

impl Rule for MD042NoEmptyLinks

fn category(&self) -> RuleCategory

Get the category of this rule for selective processing

fn should_skip(&self, ctx: &LintContext<'_>) -> bool

Check if this rule should be skipped

fn name(&self) -> &'static str

fn description(&self) -> &'static str

fn check(&self, ctx: &LintContext<'_>) -> LintResult

fn fix(&self, ctx: &LintContext<'_>) -> Result<String, LintError>

fn as_any(&self) -> &dyn Any

fn from_config(_config: &Config) -> Box<dyn Rule>

where Self: Sized,

Factory: create a rule from config (if present), or use defaults.

fn default_config_section(&self) -> Option<(String, Value)>

Returns the rule name and default config table if the rule has config. If a rule implements this, it MUST be defined on the impl Rule for ... block, not just the inherent impl.

fn config_aliases(&self) -> Option<HashMap<String, String>>

Returns config key aliases for this rule This allows rules to accept alternative config key names for backwards compatibility

fn fix_capability(&self) -> FixCapability

Declares the fix capability of this rule

fn cross_file_scope(&self) -> CrossFileScope

Declares cross-file analysis requirements for this rule

fn contribute_to_index( &self, _ctx: &LintContext<'_>, _file_index: &mut FileIndex, )

Contribute data to the workspace index during linting

fn cross_file_check( &self, _file_path: &Path, _file_index: &FileIndex, _workspace_index: &WorkspaceIndex, ) -> LintResult

Perform cross-file validation after all files have been linted