Unmatched tag

HTML in your writing, or in a value a template shows through the markdown filter, opens an element and never closes it, or closes an element it never opened. The message points at the tag. It is one of these:

• A start tag, such as <div>, with no end tag after it.
• A comment, <!--, with no --> after it.
• An end tag, such as </div>, with nothing of that name open before it.

What you’ll see

warning  Unmatched tag: `<div>` is never closed
  Close it with `</div>` where it should end.
  More: https://statac.dev/e/unmatched-tag/

In the terminal, the message also shows the file and line, if there is one, and marks the exact text.

Why Statac warns

Statac publishes what you wrote as written. A browser reads your HTML as part of the whole page, not on its own, so a tag that doesn’t match reaches past your writing. An element left open takes in what the layout puts after the writing: on a list of posts, the posts after this one, the links to more pages and the footer. A comment left open hides all of it. A closing tag with nothing to close is ignored where the layout has nothing of that name open round the writing, and closes part of the layout where it has, so what follows falls out of place. Which it does turns on the layout, which can change, so every one is warned of.

Statac doesn’t add or remove a tag for you, because it can’t know where you meant the element to end.

HTML that browsers close without harm isn’t warned about:

• Elements whose closing tag may be left out, such as <p>, <li>, <tr> and <td>, and elements that hold nothing, such as <br> and <img>.
• An element left open inside one that is closed, such as a <div> inside a <figure> that </figure> closes, or inside a paragraph, a list item, a quotation, a heading or a table’s cell, which ends where Markdown ends it. A browser closes both. The exceptions are <a>, <b>, <i>, <em>, <strong>, <code> and the like, which a browser opens again round what follows, until their own closing tag.
• HTML in a code span or a code block, which is shown as text.

Each piece of writing is matched on its own: a page’s writing, each footnote’s note, the writing each snippet call wraps, and each value shown through markdown. HTML that a snippet writes isn’t counted.

How to fix it

Write the closing tag where the element should end, or remove the tag you don’t need. A tag matches its closing tag whatever its letters’ case, so </table> closes <TABLE>. Close a comment with -->.

If a tag is left open on purpose, for a template to close, quieten the warning with quiet: [unmatched-tag] in statac.yaml.

Example

In content/post-1.md, the box is never closed, so it takes in the rest of the page:

<div class="box">

A note in a box.

Close it where the box ends:

<div class="box">

A note in a box.

</div>

In content/post-2.md, the </div> closes nothing the post opened:

The first paragraph.

</div>

The second paragraph.

Remove it, or open the element above it.

Its name

Name	unmatched-tag
In the terminal	statac explain unmatched-tag
To stop showing it	quiet: [unmatched-tag] in statac.yaml, once you have understood it. Statac still counts it.