<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
          xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
          xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
          xmlns:src="http://nwalsh.com/xmlns/litprog/fragment"
          xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
          version="5.0" xml:id="generate.consistent.ids">
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>generate.consistent.ids</refentrytitle>
<refmiscinfo class="other" otherclass="datatype">boolean</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>generate.consistent.ids</refname>
<refpurpose>Generate consistent id values if document is unchanged</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>
<src:fragment xml:id="generate.consistent.ids.frag">
<xsl:param name="generate.consistent.ids" select="0"/>
</src:fragment>
</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsection><info><title>Description</title></info>

<para>When the stylesheet assigns an id value to an output element,
the generate-id() function may be used.  That function may not
produce consistent values between runs.  Version control
systems may misidentify the changing id values as changes
to the document.</para>

<para>If you set this parameter's value to 1, then the
template named <literal>object.id</literal> will replace
the use of the function generate-id() with
<literal>&lt;xsl:number level="multiple" count="*"/&gt;</literal>.
This counts preceding elements to generate a unique number for
the id value.</para>

<caution>
<para>This param does not associate permanent unique id values
with particular elements.
The id values are consistent only as long as the document
structure does not change.
If the document structure changes, then the counting
of elements changes, and all id values after
the first such change may be different, even when there is
no change to the element itself or its output.
</para>
</caution>

<para>The default value of this parameter is zero, so generate-id() is used
by default.</para>

</refsection>
</refentry>