error building book with horizontal line in markdown

[jtbayly]

When I try to add a horizontal line to my book using markdown, the build process fails.

Below is the code for a horizontal line in Markdown:

--- on a line by itself.

Here is the error I get:

! Missing number, treated as zero.
<to be read again> 
                   \protect 
l.145 ...nter}\rule{0.5\linewidth}{\linethickness}
                                                  \end{center} 

Error: Failed to compile bookdown-demo.tex. See https://yihui.org/tinytex/r/#debugging for debugging tips. See bookdown-demo.log for more info.
Execution halted

Exited with status 1.

It appears that this is a bug in Pandoc, fixed in 2.8. Does anybody know if Pandoc will be updated in Rstudio/bookdown any time soon, or should I figure out how to install and use a different version of Pandoc locally?

[cderv]

@jtbayly

Does anybody know if Pandoc will be updated in Rstudio/bookdown any time soon, or should I figure out how to install and use a different version of Pandoc locally?

Bookdown does not come with a pandoc installation. RStudio IDE does. You can install your own pandoc version and configure Rmarkdown to use it (or just make it available in PATH I guess...)

[jtbayly]

Thanks. I was just assuming that bookdown targeted the version of Pandoc included with Rstudio, so both might need changes for Pandoc in Rstudio to be updated.

Unfortunately I’m running into other problems using the latest version of Pandoc, but that’s a separate issue.

[jtbayly]

I guess my root problem really isn't answered. I still can't build books with a horizontal rule in them. Do you have any suggestions for how to do that?

I've installed the latest version of Pandoc (2.9) on my mac (using homebrew to do so).

However, now that I'm running latest version, when I attempt to build the demo book, I get the following error:

pandoc-citeproc: Error in $: Incompatible API versions: encoded with [1,20] but attempted to decode with [1,17,0,4].
CallStack (from HasCallStack):
error, called at ./Text/Pandoc/JSON.hs:113:48 in pandoc-types-1.17.0.4-JUbKfxLZkCY3AkhtmFEGjK:Text.Pandoc.JSON
Error running filter /usr/local/bin/pandoc-citeproc:
Filter returned error status 1
Error: pandoc document conversion failed with error 83
Execution halted

Exited with status 1.

I figured maybe I needed to update pandoc-citeproc to the latest version, too, so I installed that (version 0.16.4) with Brew as well. That doesn't seem to help, though.

It appears maybe I need to install the latest version of pandoc-types? But there is no brew recipe for this, so I don't really know how to install it. Plus, I don't know if that will fix the problem.

Can anybody help me build a book with a simple horizontal rule in it?

---

Like that ^ !

Thanks in advance.

[jtbayly]

The solution is to update Citeproc to 0.16.4.1. I got help from the Pandoc list and they pointed out I wasn't running the latest version like I thought I was.

[cderv]

Awesome ! Thanks for the update!

If your question's been answered (even by you!), would you mind choosing a solution? It helps other people see which questions still need help, or find solutions if they have similar problems. Here’s how to do it:

FAQ: How do I mark a solution?

If your question has been answered, don't forget to mark the solution! How do I mark a solution? Find the reply you want to mark as the solution and look for the row of small gray icons at the bottom of that reply. Click the one that looks like a box with a checkmark in it: [image] Hovering over the mark solution button shows the label, "Select if this reply solves the problem". If you don't see the mark solution button, try clicking the three dots button ( ••• ) to expand the full set of options. When a solution is chosen, the icon turns green and the hover label changes to: "Unselect if this reply no longer solves the problem". Success! [solution_reply_author] …