se split-file not working as expected

[Scott Voyles]

I'm working through the step-by-step guide but hit a snag with the `se split-file` util - the split comments seem to be added correctly before each "h2" tag for each chapter, but "chapter-1.xhmtl" has no contents and all subsequent chapters contain the previous chapter's content (eg. chapter 1 content lands in "chapter-2.xhtml" and so on).

Are the comments being added correctly?

[Alex Cabal]

se split-file doesn't understand frontmatter, only chapters. So, remove
the frontmatter first, so that chapter 1 is the first section in larger
file.

On 1/7/26 1:58 PM, Scott Voyles wrote:
> I'm working through the step-by-step guide but hit a snag with the `se
> split-file` util - the split comments seem to be added correctly before
> each "h2" tag for each chapter, but "chapter-1.xhmtl" has no contents
> and all subsequent chapters contain the previous chapter's content (eg.
> chapter 1 content lands in "chapter-2.xhtml" and so on).
>

> Are the comments being added correctly?Screenshot 2026-01-07 at 20.58.07.png
>
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[Scott Voyles]

Yep, it's literally the first element of the "body"

[Alex Cabal]

Yes, you're telling it that everything before the first comment is
chapter 1. So, remove everything before the first comment, and the first
comment itself.

On 1/7/26 2:05 PM, Scott Voyles wrote:
> Yep, it's literally the first element of the "body"
>

> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
> > standardebooks/7d216366-cccd-4da5-
> b4b2-530e14c22d54n%40googlegroups.com <http://40googlegroups.com>
> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/7d216366-
> cccd-4da5- <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/
> standardebooks/7d216366-cccd-4da5->
> > b4b2-530e14c22d54n%40googlegroups.com?
> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer <http://40googlegroups.com?
> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>>.

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[Scott Voyles]

Or do you mean removing the doctype directives, and also html and body elements?

[Scott Voyles]

Another question, Alex - there were anchor tags preserved while formatting the headers, should we keep these? I didn't see any mention yet in the style guide.

<h2>
<a id="CHAPTER_XI"><span epub:type="z3998:roman">XI</span></a>
</h2>

Or more as in the styleguide:

      <hgroup>
        <h2 epub:type="ordinal z3998:roman">I</h2>
        <p>My Birth and Childhood.</p>
      </hgroup>

[Robin Whittleton]

You can dump them. For this example, the final markup would be <h2 epub:type="ordinal z3998:roman">XI</h2>

-Robin

On 8 Jan 2026, at 08:02, Scott Voyles <zeit...@gmail.com> wrote:

Another question, Alex - there were anchor tags preserved while formatting the headers, should we keep these? I didn't see any mention yet in the style guide.

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[Scott Voyles]

Thanks, Robin. Another question regarding links to page numbers from PG - I assume I can also get rid of all these as well? I find it nice to know this information, do we generate this somehow later?

Here's some example markup to show you what I mean:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" epub:prefix="z3998: http://www.daisy.org/z3998/2012/vocab/structure/, se: https://standardebooks.org/vocab/1.0" xml:lang="en-US">
<head>
<title>I: My Birth and Childhood</title>
<link href="../css/core.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
<link href="../css/local.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
</head>
<body epub:type="bodymatter z3998:fiction">
<section id="chapter-1" epub:type="chapter">

<hgroup>
<h2 epub:type="ordinal z3998:roman">I</h2>

<p epub:type="title">My Birth and Childhood</p>
</hgroup>
<p epub:type="bridgehead">Earliest Memories.⁠—Born in Maryland.⁠—My Father’s First Appearance.⁠—Attempted Outrage on My Mother.⁠—My Father’s Fight with an Overseer.⁠—One Hundred Stripes and His Ear Cut Off.⁠—Throws Away His Banjo and Becomes Morose.⁠—Sold South.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>
<span class="pagenum"> <--- this for example
<a id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a>
</span>
</p>
</section>
</body>
</html>

[Scott Voyles]

And some questions regarding organization:

1. Is it preferred to keep questions in the original book thread? I feel like the more questions I have, it would be nice to maintain history there.

2. And I would refer to the repo from now on to save from copying/pasting so much, and would like to setup a "standardebooks" repo with individual projects as git submodules, I assume for you guys it doesn't matter?

[Robin Whittleton]

Yep, all those can be dropped too.

The thing that’s missing from your example is a header element to wrap the heading and bridgehead together. Have a look at the examples in https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.5/7-high-level-structural-patterns#7.2.11

-Robin

On 8 Jan 2026, at 12:44, Scott Voyles <zeit...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, Robin. Another question regarding links to page numbers from PG - I assume I can also get rid of all these as well? I find it nice to know this information, do we generate this somehow later?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/69599252-fd9a-4c9a-b6d3-f5c7e2d07627n%40googlegroups.com.

[Alex Cabal]

Yes, questions about your book should go in your book's thread.

Please create one repo per ebook, don't complicate things with
submodules. Thanks!

On 1/8/26 5:58 AM, Scott Voyles wrote:
> And some questions regarding organization:
>
> 1. Is it preferred to keep questions in the original book thread? I feel
> like the more questions I have, it would be nice to maintain history there.
> 2. And I would refer to the repo from now on to save from copying/
> pasting so much, and would like to setup a "standardebooks" repo with
> individual projects as git submodules, I assume for you guys it doesn't
> matter?
>
> On Thursday, January 8, 2026 at 12:44:18 PM UTC+1 Scott Voyles wrote:
>
> Thanks, Robin. Another question regarding links to page numbers from
> PG - I assume I can also get rid of all these as well? I find it
> nice to know this information, do we generate this somehow later?
>
> Here's some example markup to show you what I mean:
>
> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml <http://www.w3.org/1999/
> xhtml>" xmlns:epub="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops <http://
> www.idpf.org/2007/ops>" epub:prefix="z3998: http://www.daisy.org/
> z3998/2012/vocab/structure/ <http://www.daisy.org/z3998/2012/vocab/
> structure/>, se: https://standardebooks.org/vocab/1.0 <https://
> standardebooks.org/vocab/1.0>" xml:lang="en-US">

> <head>
> <title>I: My Birth and Childhood</title>
> <link href="../css/core.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
> <link href="../css/local.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
> </head>
> <body epub:type="bodymatter z3998:fiction">
> <section id="chapter-1" epub:type="chapter">
>
> <hgroup>
> <h2 epub:type="ordinal z3998:roman">I</h2>
> <p epub:type="title">My Birth and Childhood</p>
> </hgroup>
> <p epub:type="bridgehead">Earliest Memories.⁠—Born in Maryland.⁠—My
> Father’s First Appearance.⁠—Attempted Outrage on My Mother.⁠—My
> Father’s Fight with an Overseer.⁠—One Hundred Stripes and His Ear
> Cut Off.⁠—Throws Away His Banjo and Becomes Morose.⁠—Sold South.</p>
> <p>...</p>
> <p>

> <span class="pagenum"> *<--- this for example*

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