If this is correct, then I think default files are not a solution to the case I described, as I explicitly want to prevent the overriding of yaml-metadata by the CLI Options. My thinking is that many people (including myself actually), have ready-to-go "snippets" of a pandoc command with a few options that they use all the time. Now in some cases, the Metadata from the YAMl should take precedence over the command line options.

Imagine the following use case: I am a casual user, who wrote one pandoc "snippet" with all options I want to use every time I use pandoc. Maybe I even created an alias for it. This includes, for example, the use of apa.csl as citation style. But for that one document, I actually want to use asa.csl, as that one niche journal requires it. I write "csl: havard.csl" in the YAML-header. However, when later converting the document, I use may pandoc snippet, as I always do. But since it is my snippet-to-go, I forget that the snippet includes "--csl apa.csl" and get an output with the wrong citation style. If I used an alias for my snippet, I will even have a hard time finding out what the problem is.

I mean, sure, this is very specific case where the general overriding of yaml-metadata is not desired. But from what I can tell, a lot of casual users of pandoc save some sort of pandoc snippet that they write once, and then do not think about any further. Some sort of "yaml-overrides-cli" line that could be an option or could be added in the yaml-header could avoid some trouble for casual users like avoid?

On Thursday, August 12, 2021 at 7:30:40 PM UTC+2 John MacFarlane wrote:

See
https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/5870
and
https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/4627

Currently defaults files are the way to go for this kind of thing.

Christopher Grieser <griese...-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> writes:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I am new to this Forum – if this is the wrong place for this kind of
> question, I apologize; feel free to point me to the right place then.
>
> My question: When there are conflictings between YAML-Metadata and CLI
> options, the standard behavior of Pandoc is a) to extend the information
> (e.g. with --include-in-header) in some cases when it is repeatable, or to
> override the YAML-Metadata with the CLI options (e.g. --csl or
> --bibliography).
>
> Is it somehow possible to control the behavior more precisely? For example:
>
> 1. in conflicting cases, YAML-Metadata overrides CLI options
> 2. in repeatable cases, extend the CLI options with the YAML Metadata.
>
> Option 1 could be useful for the --csl option, when you want to prevent the
> use of a different citation style, when a different user compiles the
> document with a different csl. Option 2 could be useful for --bibliography
> to "add" document-specific citations while you use your main bibliography
> via CLI. (especially the later strikes me as unusual, since with some other
> repeatable options, the YAML-Metadata is extended and not overridden.)
>
> More generally, I am wondering whether there is/could be something like an
> "--yaml-overrides-cli=[true/false]" option to control this behavior?
>
> Best,
> Chris
>
>
>
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