Help:Lint errors/missing-end-tag

The missing-end-tag error is when a ‎<tag> is opened, but not closed. To fix it, close the opened tag.

Examples

Example 1:

<span> rabbits

In example 1, the span needs to be closed by adding ‎</span> at the end:

<span> rabbits</span>

Example 2:

<span>Foo

baz
</span>

Note that this example may be potentially confusing since there is both an open and closing span tag. But, note that this is wikitext, not HTML. As such, when this wikitext is processed, the first line gets wrapped in a p-tag, and the 3rd and 4th lines get wrapped in a second p-tag. So, the "opening" and "closing" span tags are split between two paragraph tags. So, in the first paragraph, the span tag is indeed unclosed!

Example 3:

<span>foo
<p>bar</p>
boo
</span>

As with example 2, this is also wikitext, not HTML. So, the first line gets wrapped in a p-tag within which the span tag is unclosed.

Examples 2 and 3 not only causes the missing end linter warning but also the stripped tag warning. Solutions for 2 and 3 depend on the exact required output. The simplest is to change the ‎<span> into a ‎<div>.

The confusing message is a result of ‎<p>...‎</p> tags being automatically generated by the parser for each paragraph of text.

Example 4:

''rabbits

In example 4, the HTML tag is a result of parsing wikitext syntax for italics. It needs to be closed by adding '' at the end.

Tools

The following tools can help fix missing end tags:

• WPCleaner: see instructions on how to use WPCleaner for fixing errors detected by Linter. Missing end tags may be reported by WPCleaner as part of CheckWiki error #532 (for tags) and error #540 (for bold and italic formatting).