HELP: What did I just do with this convert command?! [ --unsafe flag scope ]

support
1

So I create a new hugo site and changed into it.

I then created a new hugo theme.

The default config file was config.toml, but I wanted congi.yaml - because I am used to YAML.

On the command line from the project root, I attempted to change the config using Hugo’s convert tool by typing:

hugo convert toYAML --config /config.toml --unsafe

I added unsafe because without it said something about not having permission - yes, I am not too bright.

That didn’t change the config.toml as I had hoped, but it said “processing 3 content files”.

I can’t see any content files to process, let alone 3 of them.

My questions are:

  1. With the --unsafe flag, did I just let hugo process some files OUTSIDE of the project?

  2. What did I just get Hugo to do? (Because it didn’t seem to change my config.toml, but it did ‘something’.)

  3. Is there a way to get hugo to convert files (not just front matter), or is it manual only?

Thanks!!

2

Looking at the docs for that command, it appears to be for converting frontmatter of files in the content folder of your project.

3

But I don’t have any content in the content/ folder - that is why I am concerned that it tells me 3 files have been processed.

And could you find docs for the --unsafe flag? Because I couldn’t. I’d be happy just knowing that it doesn’t expose the filesystem outside of the project root - then I’ll just kill the project and start again as a reset.

4

Though, if your cited command is correct, you told it to go look in the root, by specifying the path as /config.toml. At any rate, it is not really for converting the config file anyway, confirming via some posts in here. I haven’t looked for any docs on --unsafe and, after a quick look I don’t find any either.

1 Like
5

Thank you. I haven’t actually marked it as the correct answer because I still don’t know the answers to my questions - but I appreciate your replies.

My current suspicions (hopes?) are:

  1. The --unsafe tag doesn’t give Hugo file system access, and the “3 processed files” are some project based settings for Hugo - not sure because the docs aren’t clear to me.
  2. Again, I THINK it changed some project settings - not files elsewhere.
  3. No. It will only convert frontmatter of Markdown files, and will not convert config files - so manual needed - again, not 100% sure from the docs either.

I might propose a PR to change DOCS to say at the begining of the various convert pages to that it only converts frontmatter and config/theme files have to be done manually - perhaps I will do it to one and see if that is actually the case by the response!

6

FYI - PR made and accepted for docs clarifying Hugo convert is only for frontmatter and not for config files (i.e. the third question).