How do I preview a single qmd file in VSCode without creating contents that are visible to git version control?

[pipme]

Description

Hi, I am using Quarto for a book type project. In VSCode, if clicking the preview button on the upper right, there will be outputs like <filename>_files/ and also <filename>.html (see the figure below). Can I direct these outputs to be inside a folder, e.g., _preview_cache/, such that I could add the folder to .gitignore?

I tried:

project:
  type: book
  preview:
    output-dir: "_preview_cache"

but it doesn't work.

Thanks!

My Quarto version is 1.5.57.

[mcanouil]

Because output-dir belongs to project not preview.
I am not sure what you are trying to do exactly here.
Do you want to track the output at all?

[mcanouil]

Then you don't need to change the output directory.
Simply add _book to your .gitignore.

Note that you are talking about single file but you are using a non default project which is a book.
So what is your setup exactly?
output-dir is a project option. There is a discussion about this.

• Output directory in quarto-cli #2171

Anyhow, use .gitignore to ignore what you don't want to track.

[pipme]

But the output is not inside _book. They are in the root folder.

I guess that's because it gets treated as a single qmd file but not a file belonging to the book project.

[mcanouil]

Because you don't share concrete and reproducible example, I can only guess you are mixing incorrect things together hoping it will somehow work.

[pipme]

Thanks for the help!

I just figured it out. The file mlcs_guide.qmd was not added to .quarto.yaml. After adding it there the output is corrected sent to _book. Sorry for bothering 😅

[pipme]

And yeah I got confused whether the extension is previewing a single file or a file inside a book project. Thanks!

[mcanouil]

Glad you figured it out!