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DOCUTILS(1) text processing DOCUTILS(1)

NAME

docutils - generic command line interface for the docutils package

SYNOPSIS

docutils [options] [<source> [<destination>]]

DESCRIPTION

Convert documents into useful formats. Reads from <source> (default is stdin) and writes to <destination> (default is stdout). See https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/user/config.html for a detailed settings reference.

OPTIONS

General Docutils Options

Specify the document title as metadata.
Include a "Generated by Docutils" credit and link.
Do not include a generator credit.
Include the date at the end of the document (UTC).
Include the time & date (UTC).
Do not include a datestamp of any kind.
Include a "View document source" link.
Use <URL> for a source link; implies --source-link.
Do not include a "View document source" link.
Link from section headers to TOC entries. (default)
Link from section headers to the top of the TOC.
Disable backlinks to the table of contents.
Link from footnotes/citations to references. (default)
Disable backlinks from footnotes and citations.
Enable section numbering by Docutils. (default)
Disable section numbering by Docutils.
Remove comment elements from the document tree.
Leave comment elements in the document tree. (default)
Remove all elements with classes="<class>" from the document tree. Warning: potentially dangerous; use with caution. (Multiple-use option.)
Remove all classes="<class>" attributes from elements in the document tree. Warning: potentially dangerous; use with caution. (Multiple-use option.)
Report system messages at or higher than <level>: "info" or "1", "warning"/"2" (default), "error"/"3", "severe"/"4", "none"/"5"
Report all system messages. (Same as "--report=1".)
Report no system messages. (Same as "--report=5".)
Halt execution at system messages at or above <level>. Levels as in --report. Default: 4 (severe).
Halt at the slightest problem. Same as "--halt=info".
Enable a non-zero exit status for non-halting system messages at or above <level>. Default: 5 (disabled).
Enable debug-level system messages and diagnostics.
Disable debug output. (default)
Send the output of system messages to <file>.
Enable Python tracebacks when Docutils is halted.
Disable Python tracebacks. (default)
Specify the encoding and optionally the error handler of input text. Default: <auto-detect>:strict.
Specify the error handler for undecodable characters. Choices: "strict" (default), "ignore", and "replace".
Specify the text encoding and optionally the error handler for output. Default: utf-8:strict.
Specify error handler for unencodable output characters; "strict" (default), "ignore", "replace", "xmlcharrefreplace", "backslashreplace".
Specify text encoding and optionally error handler for error output. Default text encoding: system encoding. Default error handler: backslashreplace.
Specify the error handler for unencodable characters in error output. Default: backslashreplace.
Specify the language (as BCP 47 language tag). Default: en.
Write output file dependencies to <file>.
Read configuration settings from <file>, if it exists.
Show this program's version number and exit.
Show this help message and exit.

Generic Parser Options

Disable directives that insert the contents of an external file; replaced with a "warning" system message.
Enable directives that insert the contents of an external file. (default)
Disable the "raw" directive; replaced with a "warning" system message.
Enable the "raw" directive. (default)
Maximal number of characters in an input line. Default 10 000.

reStructuredText Parser Options

Recognize and link to standalone PEP references (like "PEP 258").
Base URL for PEP references (default "https://peps.python.org/").
Template for PEP file part of URL. (default "pep-%04d")
Recognize and link to standalone RFC references (like "RFC 822").
Base URL for RFC references (default "https://tools.ietf.org/html/").
Set number of spaces for tab expansion (default 8).
Remove spaces before footnote references.
Leave spaces before footnote references.
Token name set for parsing code with Pygments: one of "long", "short", or "none" (no parsing). Default is "long".
Change straight quotation marks to typographic form: one of "yes", "no", "alt[ernative]" (default "no").
Characters to use as "smart quotes" for <language>.
Inline markup recognized at word boundaries only (adjacent to punctuation or whitespace). Force character-level inline markup recognition with "" (backslash + space). Default.
Inline markup recognized anywhere, regardless of surrounding characters. Backslash-escapes must be used to avoid unwanted markup recognition. Useful for East Asian languages. Experimental.

Standalone Reader Options

Disable the promotion of a lone top-level section title to document title (and subsequent section title to document subtitle promotion; enabled by default).
Disable the bibliographic field list transform (enabled by default).
Activate the promotion of lone subsection titles to section subtitles (disabled by default).
Deactivate the promotion of lone subsection titles.

HTML Writer Options

Template file. (UTF-8 encoded, default: "/usr/share/do cutils/writers/html5_polyglot/template.txt")
Comma separated list of stylesheet URLs. Overrides previous --stylesheet and --stylesheet-path settings.
Comma separated list of stylesheet paths. Relative paths are expanded if a matching file is found in the --stylesheet-dirs. With --link-stylesheet, the path is rewritten relative to the output HTML file. (default: "minimal.css,plain.css")
Comma-separated list of directories where stylesheets are found. Used by --stylesheet-path when expanding relative path arguments. (default: ".,/usr/share/docutils/writers/html5_polyglot")
Embed the stylesheet(s) in the output HTML file. The stylesheet files must be accessible during processing. (default)
Link to the stylesheet(s) in the output HTML file.
Specify the initial header level. Does not affect document title & subtitle (see --no-doc-title). (default: 2 for "<h2>")
Format for footnote references: one of "superscript" or "brackets". (default: "brackets")
Format for block quote attributions: one of "dash" (em-dash prefix), "parentheses"/"parens", or "none". (default: "dash")
Remove extra vertical whitespace between items of "simple" bullet lists and enumerated lists. (default)
Disable compact simple bullet and enumerated lists.
Remove extra vertical whitespace between items of simple field lists. (default)
Disable compact simple field lists.
Added to standard table classes. Defined styles: borderless, booktabs, align-left, align-center, align- right, colwidths-auto, colwidths-grid.
Math output format (one of "MathML", "HTML", "MathJax", or "LaTeX") and option(s). (default: "HTML math.css")
Prepend an XML declaration.
Omit the XML declaration.
Obfuscate email addresses to confuse harvesters while still keeping email links usable with standards- compliant browsers.

HTML5 Writer Options

Suggest at which point images should be loaded: "embed", "link" (default), or "lazy".
Append a self-link to section headings.
Do not append a self-link to section headings. (default)

Docutils Application Options

Reader, writer, and parser settings influence the available options. Example: use --help --writer=latex to see LaTeX writer options.

Reader name (currently: "standalone").
Parser name (currently: "rst").
Writer name (currently: "html5").