The [[ikiwiki/directive/listdirectives]]` directive doesn't register a link between the page and the subpages. This is a problem because then the [[ikiwiki/directive/orphans]] directive then marks the directives as orphans... Maybe it is a but with the orphans directive however... A simple workaround is to exclude those files from the orphans call... --[[anarcat]]
+
+> There's a distinction between wikilinks (matched by `link()`,
+> `backlink()` etc.) and other constructs that produce a
+> hyperlink. Some directives count as a wikilink (like `tag`)
+> but many don't (notably `inline`, `map`, `listdirectives`,
+> and `orphans` itself). As documented in
+> [[ikiwiki/directive/orphans]], orphans will tend to list
+> pages that are only matched by inlines/maps, too.
+>
+> The rule of thumb seems to be that a link to a particular
+> page counts as a wikilink, but a directive that lists
+> pages matching some pattern does not; so I think
+> `listdirectives` is working as intended here.
+> `orphans` itself obviously shouldn't count as a wikilink,
+> because that would defeat the point of it :-)
+>
+> Anything that uses a [[ikiwiki/pagespec]] to generate links,
+> like `inline` and `map`, can't generate wikilinks, because
+> wikilinks are gathered during the scan phase, and pagespecs
+> can't be matched until after the scan phase has finished
+> (otherwise, it'd be non-deterministic whether all wikilinks
+> had been seen yet, and `link()` in pagespecs wouldn't work
+> predictably).
+>
+> I suggest just using something like:
+>
+> \[[!orphans pages="* and !blog/* and !ikiwiki/directive/*"]]
+>
+> This wiki's example of listing [[plugins/orphans]] has a
+> more elaborate pagespec, which avoids bugs, todo items etc.
+> as well.
+>
+> --[[smcv]]
+
+> No follow-up or objection for a while, so considering this to
+> be working as designed. --[[smcv]]
+
+> > Seems I'm a bit late to butt in, but would it be possible to have two
+> > further phases after the scan phase, the first running map and inline
+> > and the second orphan? Then map and inline could log or register their
+> > links (obviously somewhere were it won't change the result of the link function)
+> > and orphan could take them into account. This logging could be
+> > turned on by parameter to not waste time for users not needing this and
+> > make it tunable (i.e. so that the user can decide which map directives count and which don't)
+> >
+> > For someone using map and especially autoindex the output of the orphans directive
+> > is simply wrong/useless (at least it is for me). And there is no easy workaround like for listdirectives
+> > -- [[holger]]
+
+>>> Hmm. I think this can be done without introducing any "phases",
+>>> even, but it would require each plugin that generates links according
+>>> to a pagespec to have either a conditional call into the orphans plugin,
+>>> or a call to a new core function in ikiwiki that exists solely to
+>>> support the orphans plugin. Something like this, maybe:
+>>>
+>>> # in map.pm, inline.pm, pagestats.pm etc., at scan time
+>>> if (IkiWiki::Plugin::orphans->can("add_reachable")) {
+>>> IkiWiki::Plugin::orphans::add_reachable($page, $pagespec);
+>>> }
+>>>
+>>> # in orphans.pm (pseudocode; note that this does not *evaluate*
+>>> # $pagespec, only stores it, so it's OK to do this at scan time)
+>>> sub needsbuild ($pages)
+>>> for each page in $pages
+>>> clear $pagestate{location}{orphans}{reachable}
+>>> sub reachable ($location, $pagespec)
+>>> add $pagespec to @{$pagestate{location}{orphans}{reachable}}
+>>>
+>>> # in preprocess function in orphans.pm (pseudocode)
+>>> # executed at build time, not at scan time, so pagespecs work
+>>>
+>>> for each maybe_orphan with no links to it
+>>> for each location with a list of reachable pagespecs
+>>> make the page with the orphans directive depend on \
+>>> the page that is the location
+>>> for each of those pagespecs
+>>> if pagespec matches orphan
+>>> take orphan off the list
+>>> go to next orphan
+>>> output list of orphans
+>>>
+>>> (Maybe parentlinks should also annotate the parent/ancestors of
+>>> each page as reachable from that page.)
+>>>
+>>> Do other people (mainly Joey) think that'd be acceptable, or
+>>> too intrusive?
+>>>
+>>> Taking this off the list of resolved bugs again while we think about it.
+>>>
+>>> I suspect that in the presence of autoindex, what you really want might
+>>> be less "there's a link to it" and more "there's a path to it from
+>>> the root of the wiki", which is why I called the proposed function
+>>> "add_reachable". On the other hand, maybe that's too computationally
+>>> intensive to actually do; I haven't tried it.
+>>> --[[smcv]]