The `ref` and `relref` shortcodes link documents together, both of which are [built-in Hugo shortcodes][]. These shortcodes are also used to provide links to headings inside of your content, whether across documents or within a document. The only difference between `ref` and `relref` is whether the resulting URL is absolute (`http://1.com/about/`) or relative (`/about/`), respectively.
The single parameter to `ref` is a string with a content `documentname` (e.g., `about.md`) with or without an appended in-document `anchor` (`#who`) without spaces.
### Document Names
The `documentname` is the name of a document, including the format extension; this may be just the filename, or the relative path from the `content/` directory. With a document `content/blog/post.md`, either format will produce the same result:
If you have the same filename used across multiple sections, you should only use the relative path format; otherwise, the behavior will be `undefined`. This is best illustrated with an example `content` directory:
```
.
└── content
├── events
│ └── my-birthday.md
├── galleries
│ └── my-birthday.md
├── meta
│ └── my-article.md
└── posts
└── my-birthday.md
```
To be sure to get the correct reference in this case, use the full path:
If the page exists in multiple [output formats][], `ref` or `relref` can be used with a output format name:
```
[Neat]({{</* ref "blog/neat.md" "amp" */>}})
```
### Anchors
When an `anchor` is provided by itself, the current page’s unique identifier will be appended; when an `anchor` is provided appended to `documentname`, the found page's unique identifier will be appended:
When using Markdown document types, Hugo generates heading anchors automatically. The generated anchor for this section is `hugo-heading-anchors`. Because the heading anchors are generated automatically, Hugo takes some effort to ensure that heading anchors are unique both inside a document and across the entire site.
Ensuring heading uniqueness across the site is accomplished with a unique identifier for each document based on its path. Unless a document is renamed or moved between sections *in the filesystem*, the unique identifier for the document will not change: `blog/post.md` will always have a unique identifier of `81df004c333b392d34a49fd3a91ba720`.
`ref` and `relref` were added so you can make these reference links without having to know the document’s unique identifier. (The links in document tables of contents are automatically up-to-date with this value.)
