How to include files inside template/package, but parsed from project path?

[ensko]

File paths (EDIT: given as strings; see below for the path type) such as "/sections/preface/preface.typ" are always relative to where they are used:

// a.typ
#let my-include(path) = include path

// b.typ
#import "@local/test-template:0.1.0": my-include

#include "foo.typ"      // relative to b.typ
#my-include("foo.typ") // relative to a.typ

in your case, that means your (absolute) paths would be relative to (the package containing) functions.typ. The way around this is to not pass paths, but content to your template:

  before: ( //my list of files to include
    preface: include "/sections/preface/preface.typ",
    acknowledgement: include "/sections/preface/acknowledgement.typ",
    contents: include "/sections/preface/contents.typ",
    readers_guide: include "/sections/preface/readers_guide.typ",
  ),

path type (since 0.15)

Eventually, there should be There is now a distinct path type that lets you pass paths to other places, while retaining what they’re relative to but this doesn’t exist yet. You can read more on the topic here:

Why are paths always relative to the current file?

Context: I was trying to implement a small function that reads and parses a file with some regex. The function just takes the path to the file and returns the parsed context as dictionary. I wanted to move this function into a package. /somewhere/else/lib.typ #let parse-xyz(path) = { let data = read(path) … } main.typ #let values = import-xyz("my/path.xyz"); After that I found out that the read call resolves the path relative to the file that contains the function (lib.typ) and not …

Now you could also write

  before: ( //my list of files to include
    preface: path("/sections/preface/preface.typ"),
    acknowledgement: path("/sections/preface/acknowledgement.typ"),
    contents: path("/sections/preface/contents.typ"),
    readers_guide: path("/sections/preface/readers_guide.typ"),
  ),

… and your orignal include file, where file is now a path instead of a str should work.