A reference to a step that does not exist
step-reference-missingon by defaultJapanese / English
A reference such as "see step 5" past the last step the document has
Example
How to fix
Check which step is meant and correct the reference. If the step was removed, rewrite the sentence that refers to it.
Why it matters
When the text says "see step 5" and there are only four steps, the reader stops to look for step 5. It happens when steps are removed or reordered and a reference keeps the old number. Matching the references against the steps' numbers is mechanical.
What it does not flag
Steps are headings that start with a step word and a number (Step 3) and the items of numbered lists. In a document with no steps at all, a reference may be to another document's steps and is not reported. With several numbered lists, only a reference past the largest number is reported. Code is not read.
Turning it off or relaxing it
Technical details
- Layer
- L3
- Status
- stable
- Severity
- warning
- Languages
- Japanese and English
- Suited to
- business, technical, blog, legal, docs, academic, literature, speech
Levels
Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).
| normal | warning |
|---|---|
| relaxed | info |
This rule has no limit to count to. A level sets how a finding is marked: relaxed keeps the finding and marks it a step lower.
By genre
- Runs by default in
- technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper, literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play, speech/address, speech/transcript
Message
"{label}" is referred to, but the steps end at {last}
This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/step-reference-missing.yaml