How can I include an external markdown file in my Jekyll page?

Question

I have a Jekyll site. I have a part of the homepage where content goes. Initially, I created a .md file in _includes/. I added {% include myContent.md %}. This worked.

Then I realized that the Markdown file was nearly identical to my repository's README.md file. Ideally, I could edit one and they would both change.

I can access my README.md. (E.g.: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/facebook/react/master/README.md)

Is there an elegant way in which I can include this as part of my site? I tried {% include https://raw.githubusercontent.com/facebook/react/master/README.md %}. It did not work.

(Sidenote: Where can I get the URL for my repository's social media image? I'd rather not have it uploaded to my site and to GitHub if it can be more elegant.)

Answer 1

Unfortunately, this isn't possible. According to the Jekyll documentation, include only lets you include

the content from another file stored in the _includes folder

Another option, include_relative, will let you

include file fragments relative to the current file

You are limited to including relative files in the current directory or lower, higher-level directories aren't able to be included in this manner.

I imagine it's not allowed as a security measure - although I'm not able to come up with a feasible attack vector if they were to allow it.