warn users: weird stuff happens when you forget level 1 headings in index.rmd

[maxheld83]

so, I just spent 2 hours or so chasing the stupid-est bug I have inflicted upon myself in a long time:

I had an index.Rmd with no heading whatsoever (no particular reason, I just forgot about it).

Bookdown still worked, threw some uninformative warnings, but did not create an actual index.html.

I have some vague idea what must caused this problem, and I understand that I need to have a toplevel heading in each file, particularly in index.Rmd.

Perhaps bookdown could warn (better: shout and scream at) users in some informative way if they are stupid enough to forget this?

[yihui]

That makes perfect sense. Sorry for wasting your time, and I'll try my best to scream in such cases in the future.

[maxheld83]

hehe, fun gif – just hope my issue wasn't too stupid.

Just wanted to add: even without a heading in index.Rmd bookdown::gitbook actually produced output (named _main.html, etc.) just not index.html, that's what confused me.

Anyway, thanks so much for your work!

[yihui]

No, it is not stupid. It just my failure and I really should have given a more clear warning message.

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