hugo/content/functions/ref.md

---
title: ref
linktitle: ref
description: Looks up a content page by logical name.
godocref:
date: 2017-02-01
publishdate: 2017-02-01
lastmod: 2017-02-01
categories: [functions]
menu:
  docs:
    parent: "functions"
keywords: [cross references, anchors]
signature: ["ref CONTENT"]
workson: []
hugoversion:
relatedfuncs: [relref]
deprecated: false
aliases: []
---

`ref` and `relRef` look up a content page by relative path (`relref`) or logical name (`ref`) to return the permalink:

```
{{ ref "about.md" }}
```

These functions are used in two of Hugo's built-in shortcodes. You can see basic usage examples of both `ref` and `relref` in the [shortcode documentation](/content-management/shortcodes/#ref-and-relref).

For an extensive explanation of how to leverage `ref` and `relref` for content management, see [Cross References](/content-management/cross-references/).
Squashed 'docs/' content from commit f887bd7b git-subtree-dir: docs git-subtree-split: f887bd7b4e3e7c7e76cd63951e5b0d37d8fe0ac7 2017-08-10 11:18:22 -04:00			`---`
			`title: ref`
			`linktitle: ref`
			`description: Looks up a content page by logical name.`
			`godocref:`
			`date: 2017-02-01`
			`publishdate: 2017-02-01`
			`lastmod: 2017-02-01`
			`categories: [functions]`
			`menu:`
			`docs:`
			`parent: "functions"`
Squashed 'docs/' changes from 44fe0285..32356e4e 32356e4e Fix typo in header of shortcode-templates.md c8f1a2d2 Correct code example for index template function bfa6a55d Escape code fencing ff8b2f99 Fix typos in deployment with wercker tutorial 557c36e8 theme: Merge commit '7fbb4bed25001182bfeb91f79db0f0c1936582ee' 7fbb4bed Squashed 'themes/gohugoioTheme/' changes from 7dd8a302..ca53082d ce31cee0 Add "See Also" config 158cee1b Make the tags into keywords 61600be6 Add a note to the related section 49edb5a2 Relase 0.27.1 c9bbc001 releaser: Add release notes to /docs for release of 0.27.1 213c6c3b Add bugs poster 8b4590cd Add KeyCDN integration tutorial 2b277859 Add tutorial videos to several docs pages 950fef1f Update roadmap to link to the correct milestones page 496f5bf6 Rename relnotes d6f9378d Bump Netlify versions to 0.27 087fde7f Update 0.27 release notes 603f94ae docs: Document Related Content 3790f6a3 releaser: Bump versions for release of 0.27 0948868c releaser: Add release notes to /docs for release of 0.27 git-subtree-dir: docs git-subtree-split: 32356e4eabe357ae914f4d1d59e8ae31ce936723 2017-09-21 13:03:00 -04:00			`keywords: [cross references, anchors]`
Squashed 'docs/' changes from 000ab7c42..4628b9ec2 4628b9ec2 commands: Regen CLI doc 2525f2ed0 data: Regenerate docs helper 6f5a0eb19 Add Hugo 0.30 poster image 72c3fac9e Merge branch 'chroma-next2' into next 364973d3f Fix typo in syntax highlighting. ce10cc02e Update Chroma highlighting docs 9dcc4d4dd Update robots.md 1e64cb483 Rename title of cross references' page d6dfbbc51 Add warning about MMark and TOCs e8d259d32 Fix link to subsection in page 6adead19d Merge commit '040d8d2833c26c53cf9f0e035910821ed50e3863' 040d8d283 Squashed 'themes/gohugoioTheme/' changes from cdaa89c8..6b632895 bde95d890 Add Atlas starter kit fc40d078d Remove page arg from examples of relref shortcode c578620b5 Remove page arg from examples of ref shortcode ee81931a4 Remove delimiters in YAML and TOML config examples 62d7b269f Clarify that .Lastmod automatically uses .GitInfo.AuthorDate (#226) git-subtree-dir: docs git-subtree-split: 4628b9ec2c52df4de673a4d6b9621a65d8e8f5a4 2017-10-15 04:20:55 -04:00			`signature: ["ref CONTENT"]`
Squashed 'docs/' content from commit f887bd7b git-subtree-dir: docs git-subtree-split: f887bd7b4e3e7c7e76cd63951e5b0d37d8fe0ac7 2017-08-10 11:18:22 -04:00			`workson: []`
			`hugoversion:`
			`relatedfuncs: [relref]`
			`deprecated: false`
			`aliases: []`
			`---`

Squashed 'docs/' changes from 000ab7c42..4628b9ec2 4628b9ec2 commands: Regen CLI doc 2525f2ed0 data: Regenerate docs helper 6f5a0eb19 Add Hugo 0.30 poster image 72c3fac9e Merge branch 'chroma-next2' into next 364973d3f Fix typo in syntax highlighting. ce10cc02e Update Chroma highlighting docs 9dcc4d4dd Update robots.md 1e64cb483 Rename title of cross references' page d6dfbbc51 Add warning about MMark and TOCs e8d259d32 Fix link to subsection in page 6adead19d Merge commit '040d8d2833c26c53cf9f0e035910821ed50e3863' 040d8d283 Squashed 'themes/gohugoioTheme/' changes from cdaa89c8..6b632895 bde95d890 Add Atlas starter kit fc40d078d Remove page arg from examples of relref shortcode c578620b5 Remove page arg from examples of ref shortcode ee81931a4 Remove delimiters in YAML and TOML config examples 62d7b269f Clarify that .Lastmod automatically uses .GitInfo.AuthorDate (#226) git-subtree-dir: docs git-subtree-split: 4628b9ec2c52df4de673a4d6b9621a65d8e8f5a4 2017-10-15 04:20:55 -04:00			`ref` and `relRef` look up a content page by relative path (`relref`) or logical name (`ref`) to return the permalink:
Squashed 'docs/' content from commit f887bd7b git-subtree-dir: docs git-subtree-split: f887bd7b4e3e7c7e76cd63951e5b0d37d8fe0ac7 2017-08-10 11:18:22 -04:00
			```
Squashed 'docs/' changes from 000ab7c42..4628b9ec2 4628b9ec2 commands: Regen CLI doc 2525f2ed0 data: Regenerate docs helper 6f5a0eb19 Add Hugo 0.30 poster image 72c3fac9e Merge branch 'chroma-next2' into next 364973d3f Fix typo in syntax highlighting. ce10cc02e Update Chroma highlighting docs 9dcc4d4dd Update robots.md 1e64cb483 Rename title of cross references' page d6dfbbc51 Add warning about MMark and TOCs e8d259d32 Fix link to subsection in page 6adead19d Merge commit '040d8d2833c26c53cf9f0e035910821ed50e3863' 040d8d283 Squashed 'themes/gohugoioTheme/' changes from cdaa89c8..6b632895 bde95d890 Add Atlas starter kit fc40d078d Remove page arg from examples of relref shortcode c578620b5 Remove page arg from examples of ref shortcode ee81931a4 Remove delimiters in YAML and TOML config examples 62d7b269f Clarify that .Lastmod automatically uses .GitInfo.AuthorDate (#226) git-subtree-dir: docs git-subtree-split: 4628b9ec2c52df4de673a4d6b9621a65d8e8f5a4 2017-10-15 04:20:55 -04:00			`{{ ref "about.md" }}`
Squashed 'docs/' content from commit f887bd7b git-subtree-dir: docs git-subtree-split: f887bd7b4e3e7c7e76cd63951e5b0d37d8fe0ac7 2017-08-10 11:18:22 -04:00			```

			These functions are used in two of Hugo's built-in shortcodes. You can see basic usage examples of both `ref` and `relref` in the [shortcode documentation](/content-management/shortcodes/#ref-and-relref).

			For an extensive explanation of how to leverage `ref` and `relref` for content management, see [Cross References](/content-management/cross-references/).