# `MD040` - Fenced code blocks should have a language specified

Tags: `code`, `language`

Aliases: `fenced-code-language`

Parameters:

* `allowed_languages`: List of languages (`string[]`, default `[]`)
* `language_only`: Require language only (`boolean`, default `false`)

This rule is triggered when fenced code blocks are used, but a language isn't
specified:

````markdown
```
#!/bin/bash
echo Hello world
```
````

To fix this, add a language specifier to the code block:

````markdown
```bash
#!/bin/bash
echo Hello world
```
````

To display a code block without syntax highlighting, use:

````markdown
```text
Plain text in a code block
```
````

You can configure the `allowed_languages` parameter to specify a list of
languages code blocks could use. Languages are case sensitive. The default value
is `[]` which means any language specifier is valid.

You can prevent extra data from being present in the info string of fenced code
blocks. To do so, set the `language_only` parameter to `true`.

<!-- markdownlint-disable-next-line no-space-in-code -->
Info strings with leading/trailing whitespace (ex: `js `) or other content (ex:
`ruby startline=3`) will trigger this rule.

Rationale: Specifying a language improves content rendering by using the
correct syntax highlighting for code. More information:
<https://cirosantilli.com/markdown-style-guide#option-code-fenced>.