PDF book output numbers front matter chapters despite number: false setting

[AliDadgar]

I have:

• searched the issue tracker for similar issues
• installed the latest version of Quarto CLI
• formatted my issue following the Bug Reports guide

Bug description

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Steps to reproduce

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Actual behavior

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Expected behavior

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Your environment

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Quarto check output

In Quarto book projects, items listed in chapters: before the first part: declaration should be unnumbered front matter according to the documentation. However, in PDF output, these items are numbered as chapters.

Expected Behavior:

• index.qmd (Preface) listed before part: "Part I..." should be unnumbered
• First chapter inside Part I should be "Chapter 1"

Actual Behavior:

• Preface is rendered as "Chapter 1"
• First chapter inside Part I is rendered as "Chapter 2"

Reproduction:

_quarto.yml

book:
chapters:
- index.qmd # Should be unnumbered
- part: "Part I: ..."
chapters:
- chapters/ch01/index.qmd # Should be Chapter 1

index.qmd

---

title: "Preface"
number: false

Attempted Workarounds (none worked):

• number: false in file YAML
• classes: [unnumbered]
• LaTeX \frontmatter / \mainmatter via include-before-body
• number-offset: [-1]
• Empty part: "" wrapper

Environment:

• Quarto version: (run quarto --version)
• OS: macOS
• Output format: PDF with documentclass: book

[mcanouil]

Could you properly format your post using code blocks for code and terminal outputs? Thanks.
If your code contains code blocks, you need to enclose it using more backticks, i.e., usually four ````.
See https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#formatting-make-githubs-markdown-work-for-us.

Could you share a small self-contained "working" (reproducible) example to work with, i.e., a complete Quarto document or a Git repository? The goal is to make it as easy as possible for us to recreate your problem so that we can fix it: please help us help you! Thanks.

---

You can share a self-contained "working" (reproducible) Quarto document using the following syntax, i.e., using more backticks than you have in your document (usually four ````).
See https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#small-is-beautiful-aim-for-a-single-document-with-10-lines.

If you have multiple files (and if it is absolutely required to have multiple files), please share as a Git repository.

R	Python
````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: knitr --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{r} x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) y <- c(1, 4, 9, 16, 25) plot(x, y) ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````	````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: jupyter --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{python} import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] y = [1, 4, 9, 16, 25] plt.plot(x, y) plt.show() ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````

Additionally and if not already given, please share the output of quarto check within a code block (i.e., using three backticks ```txt), see https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#check.

[mcanouil]

I cannot reproduce any numbering issue with:

quarto create project book

Please do properly fill the issue template with all requested information:

• fully reproducible example
• properly formatted code
• environments: Quarto version, operating system, etc.

number: false is not controlling chapter numbering (https://quarto.org/docs/reference/projects/books.html).

I suggest you go through the book guide: https://quarto.org/docs/books/