Can variables passed to Pandoc be used in a lua-filter?

Question

Does Pandoc expose variables set on the command line ( pandoc -V foo=bar ) to scripts running inside the built in lua filter environment ? In other words if I run:

pandoc -V foo=bar --lua-filter=myfilter.lua

...what can I put in myfilter.lua to access foo ?

Answer 1

(Since: pandoc 2.17)

PANDOC_WRITER_OPTIONS.variables["foo"]

See https://pandoc.org/lua-filters.html#type-writeroptions

Answer 2

This is documented a bit in the description for the --metadata :

Like --variable , --metadata causes template variables to be set. But unlike --variable , --metadata affects the metadata of the underlying document (which is accessible from filters and may be printed in some output formats) and metadata values will be escaped when inserted into the template.

So, I think that using -M to set a variable will give you access to the variable inside your lua filter.