$ asciidoc -a toc -a numbered mydoc.txt
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AsciiDoc is a text document format for writing short documents, articles, books and UNIX man pages. AsciiDoc files can be translated to HTML and DocBook markups using the asciidoc(1) command. AsciiDoc is highly configurable: both the AsciiDoc source file syntax and the backend output markups (which can be almost any type of SGML/XML markup) can be customized and extended by the user. 1. IntroductionPlain text is the most universal electronic document format, no matter what computing environment you use, you can always read and write plain text documentation. But for many applications plain text is not a viable presentation format. HTML, PDF and roff (roff is used for man pages) are the most widely used UNIX presentation formats. DocBook is a popular UNIX documentation markup format which can be translated to HTML, PDF and other presentation formats. AsciiDoc is a plain text human readable/writable document format that can be translated to DocBook or HTML using the asciidoc(1) command. You can then either use asciidoc(1) generated HTML directly or run asciidoc(1) DocBook output through your favorite DocBook toolchain or use the AsciiDoc a2x(1) toolchain wrapper to produce PDF, DVI, LaTeX, PostScript, man page, HTML and text formats. The AsciiDoc format is a useful presentation format in its own right: AsciiDoc files are unencumbered by markup and are easily viewed, proofed and edited. AsciiDoc is light weight: it consists of a single Python script and a bunch of configuration files. Apart from asciidoc(1) and a Python interpreter, no other programs are required to convert AsciiDoc text files to DocBook or HTML. See Example AsciiDoc Documents below. You write an AsciiDoc document the same way you would write a normal text document, there are no markup tags or arcane notations. Built-in AsciiDoc formatting rules have been kept to a minimum and are reasonably obvious. Text markup conventions tend to be a matter of (often strong) personal preference: if the default syntax is not to your liking you can define your own by editing the text based asciidoc(1) configuration files. You can create your own configuration files to translate AsciiDoc documents to almost any SGML/XML markup. asciidoc(1) comes with a set of configuration files to translate AsciiDoc articles, books or man pages to HTML or DocBook backend formats. 2. Getting Started2.1. Installing AsciiDocSee the README and INSTALL files for install prerequisites and procedures. Packagers take a look at Appendix B: Packager Notes. 2.2. Example AsciiDoc DocumentsThe best way to quickly get a feel for AsciiDoc is to view the AsciiDoc web site and/or distributed examples:
3. AsciiDoc Document TypesThere are three types of AsciiDoc documents: article, book and manpage. All document types share the same AsciiDoc format with some minor variations. Use the asciidoc(1) -d (—doctype) option to specify the AsciiDoc document type — the default document type is article. By convention the .txt file extension is used for AsciiDoc document source files. 3.1. articleUsed for short documents, articles and general documentation. See the AsciiDoc distribution ./doc/article.txt example. 3.2. bookBooks share the same format as articles; in addition there is the option to add level 0 book part sections. Book documents will normally be used to produce DocBook output since DocBook processors can automatically generate footnotes, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, list of examples and indexes. AsciiDoc markup supports standard DocBook frontmatter and backmatter special sections (dedication, preface, bibliography, glossary, index, colophon) plus footnotes and index entries. Example book documents
3.3. manpageUsed to generate UNIX manual pages. AsciiDoc manpage documents observe special header title and section naming conventions — see the Manpage Documents section for details. See also the asciidoc(1) man page source (./doc/asciidoc.1.txt) from the AsciiDoc distribution. 4. AsciiDoc BackendsThe asciidoc(1) command translates an AsciiDoc formatted file to the backend format specified by the -b (—backend) command-line option. asciidoc(1) itself has little intrinsic knowledge of backend formats, all translation rules are contained in customizable cascading configuration files. AsciiDoc ships with the following predefined backend output formats: 4.1. docbookAsciiDoc generates the following DocBook document types: article, book and refentry (corresponding to the AsciiDoc article, book and manpage document types). DocBook documents are not designed to be viewed directly. Most Linux distributions come with conversion tools (collectively called a toolchain) for converting DocBook files to presentation formats such as Postscript, HTML, PDF, DVI, PostScript, LaTeX, roff (the native man page format), HTMLHelp, JavaHelp and text.
4.2. xhtml11The default asciidoc(1) backend is xhtml11 which generates XHTML 1.1 markup styled with CSS2. Default output file have a .html extension. xhtml11 document generation is influenced by the following optional attributes (the default behavior is to generate XHTML with no section numbers, embedded CSS and no linked admonition icon images):
4.2.1. StylesheetsAsciiDoc XHTML output is styled using CSS2 stylesheets from the distribution ./stylesheets/ directory.
Default xhtml11 stylesheets:
Use the theme attribute to select and alternative set of stylesheets. For example, the command-line option -a theme=foo will use stylesheets foo.css, foo-manpage.css and foo-quirks.css. 4.3. html4This backend generates plain (unstyled) HTML 4.01 Transitional markup. 4.4. linuxdoc
The default output file name extension is .sgml. 4.5. latexAn experimental LaTeX backend has been written for AsciiDoc by Benjamin Klum. A tutorial ./doc/latex-backend.html is included in the AsciiDoc distribution which can also be viewed at http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/latex-backend.html. 5. Document StructureAn AsciiDoc document consists of a series of block elements starting with an optional document Header, followed by an optional Preamble, followed by zero or more document Sections. Almost any combination of zero or more elements constitutes a valid AsciiDoc document: documents can range from a single sentence to a multi-part book. 5.1. Block ElementsBlock elements consist of one or more lines of text and may contain other block elements. The AsciiDoc block structure can be informally summarized
Document ::= (Header?,Preamble?,Section*) Header ::= (Title,(AuthorLine,RevisionLine?)?) AuthorLine ::= (FirstName,(MiddleName?,LastName)?,EmailAddress?) RevisionLine ::= (Revision?,Date) Preamble ::= (SectionBody) Section ::= (Title,SectionBody?,(Section)*) SectionBody ::= ((BlockTitle?,Block)|BlockMacro)+ Block ::= (Paragraph|DelimitedBlock|List|Table) List ::= (BulletedList|NumberedList|LabeledList|CalloutList) BulletedList ::= (ListItem)+ NumberedList ::= (ListItem)+ CalloutList ::= (ListItem)+ LabeledList ::= (ItemLabel+,ListItem)+ ListItem ::= (ItemText,(List|ListParagraph|ListContinuation)*) Table ::= (Ruler,TableHeader?,TableBody,TableFooter?) TableHeader ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline) TableFooter ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline) TableBody ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline) TableRow ::= (TableData+) Where:
5.2. HeaderThe Header is optional but must start on the first line of the document and must begin with a document title. Optional Author and Revision lines immediately follow the title. The header can be preceded by a CommentBlock or comment lines. The author line contains the author's name optionally followed by the author's email address. The author's name consists of a first name followed by optional middle and last names separated by white space. Multi-word first, middle and last names can be entered in the header author line using the underscore as a word separator. The email address comes last and must be enclosed in angle <> brackets. Author names cannot contain angle <> bracket characters. The optional document header revision line should immediately follow the author line. The revision line can be one of two formats:
The document heading is separated from the remainder of the document by one or more blank lines. Here's an example AsciiDoc document header: Writing Documentation using AsciiDoc ==================================== Stuart Rackham <srackham@gmail.com> v2.0, February 2003 You can override or set header parameters by passing revision, data, email, author, authorinitials, firstname and lastname attributes using the asciidoc(1) -a (—attribute) command-line option. For example: $ asciidoc -a date=2004/07/27 article.txt Attributes can also be added to the header for substitution in the header template with Attribute Entry elements. 5.3. PreambleThe Preamble is an optional untitled section body between the document Header and the first Section title. 5.4. SectionsAsciiDoc supports five section levels 0 to 4 (although only book documents are allowed to contain level 0 sections). Section levels are delineated by the section titles. Sections are translated using configuration file markup templates. To determine which configuration file template to use AsciiDoc first searches for special section titles in the [specialsections] configuration entries, if not found it uses the [sect<level>] template. The -n (—section-numbers) command-line option auto-numbers HTML outputs (DocBook line numbering is handled automatically by the DocBook toolchain commands). Section IDs are auto-generated from section titles if the sectids attribute is defined (the default behavior). The primary purpose of this feature is to ensure persistence of table of contents links: missing section IDs are generated dynamically by the JavaScript TOC generator after the page is loaded. This means, for example, that if you go to a bookmarked dynamically generated TOC address the page will load but the browser will ignore the (as yet ungenerated) section ID. The IDs are generated by the following algorithm:
For example the title Jim's House would generate the ID _jim_s_house. 5.4.1. Special SectionsIn addition to normal sections, documents can contain optional frontmatter and backmatter sections — for example: preface, bibliography, table of contents, index. The AsciiDoc configuration file [specialsections] section specifies special section titles and the corresponding backend markup templates. [specialsections] entries are formatted like: <pattern>=<name> <pattern> is a Python regular expression and <name> is the name of a configuration file markup template section. If the <pattern> matches an AsciiDoc document section title then the backend output is marked up using the <name> markup template (instead of the default sect<level> section template). The {title} attribute value is set to the value of the matched regular expression group named title, if there is no title group {title} defaults to the whole of the AsciiDoc section title. AsciiDoc comes preconfigured with the following special section titles: Preface (book documents only) Abstract (article documents only) Dedication (book documents only) Glossary Bibliography|References Colophon (book documents only) Index Appendix [A-Z][:.] <title> 5.5. Inline ElementsInline document elements are used to markup character formatting and various types of text substitution. Inline elements and inline element syntax is defined in the asciidoc(1) configuration files. Here is a list of AsciiDoc inline elements in the (default) order in which they are processed:
6. Document ProcessingThe AsciiDoc source document is read and processed as follows:
When a block element is encountered asciidoc(1) determines the type of block by checking in the following order (first to last): (section) Titles, BlockMacros, Lists, DelimitedBlocks, Tables, AttributeEntrys, AttributeLists, BlockTitles, Paragraphs. The default paragraph definition [paradef-default] is last element to be checked. Knowing the parsing order will help you devise unambiguous macro, list and block syntax rules. Inline substitutions within block elements are performed in the following default order:
The substitutions and substitution order performed on Title, Paragraph and DelimitedBlock elements is determined by configuration file parameters. 7. Text Formatting7.1. Quoted TextWords and phrases can be formatted by enclosing inline text with quote characters:
The alternative underline and plus characters, while marginally less readable, are arguably a better choice than the backtick and apostrophe characters as they are not normally used for, and so not confused with, punctuation. Quoted text can be prefixed with an attribute list. Currently the only use made of this feature is to allow the font color, background color and size to be specified (XHTML/HTML only, not DocBook) using the first three positional attribute arguments. The first argument is the text color; the second the background color; the third is the font size. Colors are valid CSS colors and the font size is a number which treated as em units. Here are some examples: [red]#Red text#. [,yellow]*bold text on a yellow background*. [blue,#b0e0e6]+Monospaced blue text on a light blue background+ [,,2]#Double sized text#. New quotes can be defined by editing asciidoc(1) configuration files. See the Configuration Files section for details. Quoted text properties
7.1.1. Constrained and Unconstrained QuotesThere are actually two types of quotes: Constrained quotesQuote text that must be bounded by white space, for example a phrase or a word. These are the most common type of quote and are the ones discussed previously. Unconstrained quotesUnconstrained quotes have no boundary constraints and can be placed anywhere within inline text. For consistency and to make them easier to remember unconstrained quotes are double-ups of the _, *, + and # constrained quotes: __unconstrained emphasized text__ **unconstrained strong text** ++unconstrained monospaced text++ ##unconstrained unquoted text## The following example emboldens the letter F: **F**ile Open...
7.2. Inline PassthroughsThis special text quoting mechanism passes inline text to the output document without the usual substitutions. There are two flavors:
7.3. Superscripts and SubscriptsPut ^carets on either^ side of the text to be superscripted, put ~tildes on either side~ of text to be subscripted. For example, the following line: e^{amp}#960;i^+1 = 0. H~2~O and x^10^. Some ^super text^ and ~some sub text~ Is rendered like: eπi+1 = 0. H2O and x10. Some super text and some sub text Superscripts and subscripts are implemented as unconstrained quotes so they can be escaped with a leading backslash and prefixed with with an attribute list. 7.4. Line Breaks (HTML/XHTML)A plus character preceded by at least one space character at the end of a line forces a line break. It generates an HTML line break (<br />) tag. Line breaks are ignored when outputting to DocBook since it has no line break element. 7.5. Rulers (HTML/XHTML)A line of four or more apostrophe characters will generate an HTML ruler (<hr />) tag. Ignored when generating non-HTML output formats. 7.6. TabsBy default tab characters input files will translated to 8 spaces. Tab expansion is set with the tabsize entry in the configuration file [miscellaneous] section and can be overridden in the include block macro by setting a tabsize attribute in the macro's attribute list. For example: include::addendum.txt[tabsize=2] The tab size can also be set using the attribute command-line option, for example --attribute tabsize=4 7.7. ReplacementsThe following replacements are defined in the default AsciiDoc configuration: (C) copyright, (TM) trademark, (R) registered trademark, -- em dash, ... ellipsis, -> right arrow, <- left arrow, => right double arrow, <= left double arrow. Which are rendered as: © copyright, ™ trademark, ® registered trademark, — em dash, … ellipsis, → right arrow, ← left arrow, ⇒ right double arrow, ⇐ left double arrow. The Configuration Files section explains how to configure your own replacements. 7.8. Special WordsWords defined in [specialwords] configuration file sections are automatically marked up without having to be explicitly notated. The Configuration Files section explains how to add and replace special words. 8. TitlesDocument and section titles can be in either of two formats: 8.1. Two line titlesA two line title consists of a title line, starting hard against the left margin, and an underline. Section underlines consist a repeated character pairs spanning the width of the preceding title (give or take up to three characters): The default title underlines for each of the document levels are: Level 0 (top level): ====================== Level 1: ---------------------- Level 2: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Level 3: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Level 4 (bottom level): ++++++++++++++++++++++ Examples: Level One Section Title ----------------------- Level 2 Subsection Title ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8.2. One line titlesOne line titles consist of a single line delimited on either side by one or more equals characters (the number of equals characters corresponds to the section level minus one). Here are some examples (levels 2 and 3 illustrate the optional trailing equals characters syntax): = Document Title (level 0) = == Section title (level 1) == === Section title (level 2) === ==== Section title (level 3) ==== ===== Section title (level 4) ===== Note
9. BlockTitlesA BlockTitle element is a single line beginning with a period followed by a title. The title is applied to the next Paragraph, DelimitedBlock, List, Table or BlockMacro. For example: .Notes - Note 1. - Note 2. is rendered as: Notes
10. BlockId ElementA BlockId is a single line block element containing a unique identifier enclosed in double square brackets. It is used to assign an identifier to the ensuing block element for use by referring links. For example: [[chapter-titles]] Chapter titles can be ... The preceding example identifies the following paragraph so it can be linked from other location, for example with <<chapter-titles,chapter titles>>. BlockId elements can be applied to Title, Paragraph, List, DelimitedBlock, Table and BlockMacro elements. The BlockId element is really just an AttributeList with a special syntax which sets the {id} attribute for substitution in the subsequent block's markup template. The BlockId element has the same syntax and serves a similar function to the anchor inline macro. 11. ParagraphsParagraphs are terminated by a blank line, the end of file, or the start of a DelimitedBlock. Paragraph markup is specified by configuration file [paradef*] sections. AsciiDoc ships with the following predefined paragraph types: 11.1. Default ParagraphA Default paragraph ([paradef-default]) consists of one or more non-blank lines of text. The first line must start hard against the left margin (no intervening white space). The processing expectation of the default paragraph type is that of a normal paragraph of text. The verse paragraph style preserves line boundaries and is useful for lyrics and poems. For example: [verse] Consul *necessitatibus* per id, consetetur, eu pro everti postulant homero verear ea mea, qui. Renders: Consul necessitatibus per id,
consetetur, eu pro everti postulant
homero verear ea mea, qui.
11.2. Literal ParagraphA Literal paragraph ([paradef-literal]) consists of one or more lines of text, where the first line is indented by one or more space or tab characters. Literal paragraphs are rendered verbatim in a monospaced font usually without any distinguishing background or border. There is no text formatting or substitutions within Literal paragraphs apart from Special Characters and Callouts. For example: Consul *necessitatibus* per id, consetetur, eu pro everti postulant homero verear ea mea, qui. Renders: Consul *necessitatibus* per id, consetetur, eu pro everti postulant homero verear ea mea, qui.
11.3. Admonition ParagraphsTip, Note, Important, Warning and Caution paragraph definitions support the corresponding DocBook admonishment elements — just write a normal paragraph but place NOTE:, TIP:, IMPORTANT:, WARNING: or CAUTION: as the first word of the paragraph. For example: NOTE: This is an example note. or the alternative syntax: [NOTE] This is an example note. Renders:
11.3.1. Admonition Icons and Captions
By default the asciidoc(1) xhtml11 and html4 backends generate text captions instead of icon image links. To generate links to icon images define the icons attribute, for example using the -a icons command-line option. The iconsdir attribute sets the location of linked icon images. You can override the default icon image using the icon attribute to specify the path of the linked image. For example: [icon="./images/icons/wink.png"] NOTE: What lovely war. Use the caption attribute to customize the admonition captions (not applicable to docbook backend). The following example suppresses the icon image and customizes the caption of a NOTE admonition (undefining the icons attribute with icons=None is only necessary if admonition icons have been enabled): [icons=None, caption="My Special Note"] NOTE: This is my special note. This subsection also applies to Admonition Blocks. 12. Delimited BlocksDelimited blocks are blocks of text enveloped by leading and trailing delimiter lines (normally a series of four or more repeated characters). The behavior of Delimited Blocks is specified by entries in configuration file [blockdef*] sections. 12.1. Predefined Delimited BlocksAsciiDoc ships with a number of predefined DelimitedBlocks (see the asciidoc.conf configuration file in the asciidoc(1) program directory): Predefined delimited block underlines: CommentBlock: ////////////////////////// PassthroughBlock: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ListingBlock: -------------------------- LiteralBlock: .......................... SidebarBlock: ************************** QuoteBlock: __________________________ ExampleBlock: ========================== Filter blocks: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
12.2. Listing BlocksListingBlocks are rendered verbatim in a monospaced font, they retain line and whitespace formatting and often distinguished by a background or border. There is no text formatting or substitutions within Listing blocks apart from Special Characters and Callouts. Listing blocks are often used for code and file listings. Here's an example: -------------------------------------- #include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("Hello World!\n"); exit(0); } -------------------------------------- Which will be rendered like: #include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("Hello World!\n"); exit(0); } 12.3. Literal BlocksLiteralBlocks behave just like LiteralParagraphs except you don't have to indent the contents. LiteralBlocks can be used to resolve list ambiguity. If the following list was just indented it would be processed as an ordered list (not an indented paragraph): .................... 1. Item 1 2. Item 2 .................... Renders: 1. Item 1 2. Item 2 12.4. SidebarBlocksA sidebar is a short piece of text presented outside the narrative flow of the main text. The sidebar is normally presented inside a bordered box to set it apart from the main text. The sidebar body is treated like a normal section body. Here's an example: .An Example Sidebar ************************************************ Any AsciiDoc SectionBody element (apart from SidebarBlocks) can be placed inside a sidebar. ************************************************ Which will be rendered like: 12.5. Comment BlocksThe contents of CommentBlocks are not processed; they are useful for annotations and for excluding new or outdated content that you don't want displayed. Here's and example: ////////////////////////////////////////// CommentBlock contents are not processed by asciidoc(1). ////////////////////////////////////////// See also Comment Lines. 12.6. Passthrough BlocksPassthroughBlocks are for backend specific markup, text is only subject to attribute and macro substitution. PassthroughBlock content will generally be backend specific. Here's an example: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <table border="1"><tr> <td>Cell 1</td> <td>Cell 2</td> </tr></table> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 12.7. Quote BlocksQuoteBlocks are used for quoted passages of text. There are two styles: quote and verse (the first positional attribute). The attribution and citetitle attributes (positional attributes 2 and 3) specify the content author and source. If no attributes are specified the quote style is used. The quote style treats the content like a SectionBody, for example: [quote, Bertrand Russell, The World of Mathematics (1956)] ____________________________________________________________________ A good notation has subtlety and suggestiveness which at times makes it almost seem like a live teacher. ____________________________________________________________________ Which is rendered as: A good notation has subtlety and suggestiveness which at times makes it almost seem like a live teacher.
The World of Mathematics (1956) — Bertrand Russell The verse style retains the content's line breaks, for example: [verse, William Blake, from Auguries of Innocence] __________________________________________________ To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. __________________________________________________ Which is rendered as: To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
from Auguries of Innocence — William Blake 12.8. Example BlocksExampleBlocks encapsulate the DocBook Example element and are used for, well, examples. Example blocks can be titled by preceding them with a BlockTitle. DocBook toolchains normally number examples and generate a List of Examples backmatter section. Example blocks are delimited by lines of equals characters and you can put any block elements apart from Titles, BlockTitles and Sidebars) inside an example block. For example: .An example ===================================================================== Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. ===================================================================== Renders: Example: An example
Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. The title prefix that is automatically inserted by asciidoc(1) can be customized with the caption attribute (xhtml11 and html4 backends). For example [caption="Example 1: "] .An example with a custom caption ===================================================================== Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. ===================================================================== 12.9. Admonition BlocksThe ExampleBlock definition includes a set of admonition styles (NOTE, TIP, IMPORTANT, WARNING, CAUTION) for generating admonition blocks (admonitions containing more than just a simple paragraph). Just precede the ExampleBlock with an attribute list containing the admonition style name. For example: [NOTE] .A NOTE block ===================================================================== Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. . Fusce euismod commodo velit. . Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. .. Fusce euismod commodo velit. .. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. . Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. ===================================================================== Renders:
See also Admonition Icons and Captions. 13. ListsList types
List behavior
13.1. Bulleted and Numbered ListsBulleted list items start with a dash or an asterisk followed by a space or tab character. Bulleted list syntaxes are: - List item. * List item. Numbered list items start with an optional number or letter followed by a period followed by a space or tab character. List numbering is optional. Numbered list syntaxes are: . Integer numbered list item. 1. Integer numbered list item with optional numbering. .. Lowercase letter numbered list item. a. Lowercase letter numbered list item with optional numbering. Here are some examples: - Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. * Fusce euismod commodo velit. * Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. Sit munere ponderum dignissim et. Minim luptatum et vel. * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. - Nulla porttitor vulputate libero. . Fusce euismod commodo velit. . Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. .. Fusce euismod commodo velit. .. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. . Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. - Praesent eget purus quis magna eleifend eleifend. 1. Fusce euismod commodo velit. a. Fusce euismod commodo velit. b. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. c. Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. 2. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. 3. Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. 4. Nam fermentum mattis ante. Which render as:
13.2. Vertical Labeled ListsLabeled list items consist of one or more text labels followed the text of the list item. An item label begins a line with an alphanumeric character hard against the left margin and ends with a double colon :: or semi-colon ;;. The list item text consists of one or more lines of text starting on the line immediately following the label and can be followed by nested List or ListParagraph elements. Item text can be optionally indented. Here are some examples: Lorem:: Fusce euismod commodo velit. Fusce euismod commodo velit. Ipsum:: Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. Dolor:: Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. Suspendisse;; A massa id sem aliquam auctor. Morbi;; Pretium nulla vel lorem. In;; Dictum mauris in urna. Which render as:
13.3. Horizontal Labeled ListsHorizontal labeled lists differ from vertical labeled lists in that the label and the list item sit side-by-side as opposed to the item under the label. Item text must begin on the same line as the label although you can begin item text on the next line if you follow the label with a backslash. The following horizontal list example also illustrates the omission of optional indentation: *Lorem*:: Fusce euismod commodo velit. Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. Fusce euismod commodo velit. *Ipsum*:: Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. - Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. - Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. *Dolor*:: \ - Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. - Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. Which render as:
13.4. Question and Answer ListsAsciiDoc comes pre-configured with a labeled list for generating DocBook question and answer (Q&A) lists (?? label delimiter). Example: Question one?? Answer one. Question two?? Answer two. Renders:
13.5. Glossary ListsAsciiDoc comes pre-configured with a labeled list (:- label delimiter) for generating DocBook glossary lists. Example: A glossary term:- The corresponding definition. A second glossary term:- The corresponding definition. For working examples see the article.txt and book.txt documents in the AsciiDoc ./doc distribution directory.
13.6. Bibliography ListsAsciiDoc comes with a predefined itemized list (+ item bullet) for generating bibliography entries. Example: + [[[taoup]]] Eric Steven Raymond. 'The Art of UNIX Programming'. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-13-142901-9. + [[[walsh-muellner]]] Norman Walsh & Leonard Muellner. 'DocBook - The Definitive Guide'. O'Reilly & Associates. 1999. ISBN 1-56592-580-7. The [[[<reference>]]] syntax is a bibliography entry anchor, it generates an anchor named <reference> and additionally displays [<reference>] at the anchor position. For example [[[taoup]]] generates an anchor named taoup that displays [taoup] at the anchor position. Cite the reference from elsewhere your document using <<taoup>>, this displays a hyperlink ([taoup]) to the corresponding bibliography entry anchor. For working examples see the article.txt and book.txt documents in the AsciiDoc ./doc distribution directory.
13.7. List Item ContinuationTo include subsequent block elements in list items (in addition to implicitly included nested lists and Literal paragraphs) place a separator line containing a single plus character between the list item and the ensuing list continuation element. Multiple block elements (excluding section Titles and BlockTitles) may be included in a list item using this technique. For example: Here's an example of list item continuation: 1. List item one. + List item one continued with a second paragraph followed by an Indented block. + ................. $ ls *.sh $ mv *.sh ~/tmp ................. + List item one continued with a third paragraph. 2. List item two. List item two literal paragraph (no continuation required). - Nested list (item one). Nested list literal paragraph (no continuation required). + Nested list appended list item one paragraph - Nested list item two. Renders:
13.8. List BlockA List block is a special delimited block containing a list element.
The List Block is useful for:
Here's an example of a nested list block: .Nested List Block 1. List item one. + This paragraph is part of the preceding list item + -- a. This list is nested and does not require explicit item continuation. This paragraph is part of the preceding list item b. List item b. This paragraph belongs to list item b. -- + This paragraph belongs to item 1. 2. Item 2 of the outer list. Renders: Nested List Block
14. FootnotesThe shipped AsciiDoc configuration includes the footnote:[<text>] inline macro for generating footnotes. The footnote text can span multiple lines. Example footnote: A footnote footnote:[An example footnote.] Which renders: A footnote Footnotes are primarily useful when generating DocBook output — DocBook conversion programs render footnote outside the primary text flow. 15. IndexesThe shipped AsciiDoc configuration includes the inline macros for generating document index entries.
For working examples see the article.txt and book.txt documents in the AsciiDoc ./doc distribution directory.
16. CalloutsCallouts are a mechanism for annotating verbatim text (source code, computer output and user input for example). Callout markers are placed inside the annotated text while the actual annotations are presented in a callout list after the annotated text. Here's an example: .MS-DOS directory listing ..................................................... 10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> bin 10/16/97 14:11 <DIR> DOS <1> 10/16/97 14:40 <DIR> Program Files 10/16/97 14:46 <DIR> TEMP 10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> tmp 10/16/97 14:37 <DIR> WINNT 10/16/97 14:25 119 AUTOEXEC.BAT <2> 2/13/94 6:21 54,619 COMMAND.COM <2> 10/16/97 14:25 115 CONFIG.SYS <2> 11/16/97 17:17 61,865,984 pagefile.sys 2/13/94 6:21 9,349 WINA20.386 <3> ..................................................... <1> This directory holds MS-DOS. <2> System startup code for DOS. <3> Some sort of Windows 3.1 hack. Which renders: MS-DOS directory listing
10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> bin 10/16/97 14:11 <DIR> DOS (1) 10/16/97 14:40 <DIR> Program Files 10/16/97 14:46 <DIR> TEMP 10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> tmp 10/16/97 14:37 <DIR> WINNT 10/16/97 14:25 119 AUTOEXEC.BAT (2) 2/13/94 6:21 54,619 COMMAND.COM (2) 10/16/97 14:25 115 CONFIG.SYS (2) 11/16/97 17:17 61,865,984 pagefile.sys 2/13/94 6:21 9,349 WINA20.386 (3)
Explanation
16.1. Implementation NotesCallout marks are generated by the callout inline macro while callout lists are generated using the callout list definition. The callout macro and callout list are special in that they work together. The callout inline macro is not enabled by the normal macros substitutions option, instead it has its own callouts substitution option. The following attributes are available during inline callout macro substitution:
The {coids} attribute can be used during callout list item substitution — it is a space delimited list of callout IDs that refer to the explanatory list item. 16.2. Including callouts in included codeYou can annotate working code examples with callouts — just remember to put the callouts inside source code comments. This example displays the test.py source file (containing a single callout) using the Source Code Highlighter Filter: Example: AsciiDoc source
[source,python] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ include::test.py[] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <1> Print statement. Example: Included test.py source
print 'Hello World!' # <1> 17. MacrosMacros are a mechanism for substituting parametrized text into output documents. Macros have a name, a single target argument and an attribute list. The default syntax is <name>:<target>[<attributelist>] (for inline macros) and <name>::<target>[<attributelist>] (for block macros). Here are some examples: http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/index.html[Asciidoc home page] include::chapt1.txt[tabsize=2] mailto:srackham@gmail.com[] Macro behavior
17.1. Inline MacrosInline Macros occur in an inline element context. Predefined Inline macros include URLs, image and link macros. 17.1.1. URLshttp, https, ftp, file, mailto and callto URLs are rendered using predefined inline macros.
Here are some examples: http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/[The AsciiDoc home page] http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/ mailto:joe.bloggs@foobar.com[email Joe Bloggs] joe.bloggs@foobar.com callto:joe.bloggs[] Which are rendered:
17.1.2. Internal Cross ReferencesTwo AsciiDoc inline macros are provided for creating hypertext links within an AsciiDoc document. You can use either the standard macro syntax or the (preferred) alternative. anchorUsed to specify hypertext link targets: [[<id>,<xreflabel>]] anchor:<id>[<xreflabel>] The <id> is a unique identifier that must begin with a letter. The optional <xreflabel> is the text to be displayed by captionless xref macros that refer to this anchor. The optional <xreflabel> is only really useful when generating DocBook output. Example anchor: [[X1]] You may have noticed that the syntax of this inline element is the same as that of the BlockId block element, this is no coincidence since they are functionally equivalent. xrefCreates a hypertext link to a document anchor. <<<id>,<caption>>> xref:<id>[<caption>] The <id> refers to an existing anchor <id>. The optional <caption> is the link's displayed text. Example: <<X21,attribute lists>> If <caption> is not specified then the displayed text is auto-generated:
Here is an example: [[tiger_image]] .Tyger tyger image::tiger.png[] This can be seen in <<tiger_image>>. 17.1.3. Linking to Local DocumentsHypertext links to files on the local file system are specified using the link inline macro. link:<target>[<caption>] The link macro generates relative URLs. The link macro <target> is the target file name (relative to the file system location of the referring document). The optional <caption> is the link's displayed text. If <caption> is not specified then <target> is displayed. Example: link:downloads/foo.zip[download foo.zip] You can use the <filename>#<id> syntax to refer to an anchor within a target document but this usually only makes sense when targeting HTML documents. Images can serve as hyperlinks using the image macro. 17.1.4. ImagesInline images are inserted into the output document using the image macro. The inline syntax is: image:<target>[<attributes>] The contents of the image file <target> is displayed. To display the image its file format must be supported by the target backend application. HTML and DocBook applications normally support PNG or JPG files. <target> file name paths are relative to the location of the referring document. Image macro attributes
17.2. Block MacrosA Block macro reference must be contained in a single line separated either side by a blank line or a block delimiter. Block macros behave just like Inline macros, with the following differences:
17.2.1. Block IdentifierThe Block Identifier macro sets the id attribute and has the same syntax as the anchor inline macro since it performs essentially the same function — block templates employ the id attribute as a block link target. For example: [[X30]] This is equivalent to the [id="X30"] block attribute list. 17.2.2. ImagesFormal titled images are inserted into the output document using the image macro. The syntax is: image::<target>[<attributes>] The block image macro has the same macro attributes as its inline counterpart. Images can be titled by preceding the image macro with a BlockTitle. DocBook toolchains normally number examples and generate a List of Figures backmatter section. For example: .Main circuit board image::images/layout.png[J14P main circuit board] xhtml11 and html4 backends precede the title with a Figure : prefix. You can customize this prefix with the caption attribute. For example: .Main circuit board [caption="Figure 2:"] image::images/layout.png[J14P main circuit board] 17.2.3. Comment LinesSingle lines starting with two forward slashes hard up against the left margin are treated as comments and are stripped from the output. Comment lines have been implemented as a block macro and are only valid in a block context — they are not treated as comments inside paragraphs or delimited blocks. Example comment line: // This is a comment. See also Comment Blocks. 17.3. System MacrosSystem macros are block macros that perform a predefined task which is hardwired into the asciidoc(1) program.
17.3.1. Include MacrosThe include and include1 system macros to include the contents of a named file into the source document. The include macro includes a file as if it were part of the parent document — tabs are expanded and system macros processed. The contents of include1 files are not subject to tab expansion or system macro processing nor are attribute or lower priority substitutions performed. The include1 macro's main use is to include verbatim embedded CSS or scripts into configuration file headers. Example: include::chapter1.txt[tabsize=4] Include macro behavior
17.3.2. Conditional Inclusion MacrosLines of text in the source document can be selectively included or excluded from processing based on the existence (or not) of a document attribute. There are two forms of conditional inclusion macro usage, the first includes document text between the ifdef and endif macros if a document attribute is defined: ifdef::<attribute>[] : endif::<attribute>[] The second for includes document text between the ifndef and endif macros if the attribute is not defined: ifndef::<attribute>[] : endif::<attribute>[] <attribute> is an attribute name which is optional in the trailing endif macro. Take a look at the *.conf configuration files in the AsciiDoc distribution for examples of conditional inclusion macro usage. 17.3.3. eval, sys and sys2 System MacrosThese block macros exhibit the same behavior as their same named system attribute references. The difference is that system macros occur in a block macro context whereas system attributes are confined to an inline context where attribute substitution is enabled. The following example displays a long directory listing inside a literal block: ------------------ sys::[ls -l *.txt] ------------------ 17.3.4. Template System MacroThe template block macro allows the inclusion of one configuration file template section within another. The following example includes the [admonitionblock] section in the [admonitionparagraph] section: [admonitionparagraph] template::[admonitionblock] Template macro behavior
17.4. Macro DefinitionsEach entry in the configuration [macros] section is a macro definition which can take one of the following forms:
<pattern> is a Python regular expression and <name> is the name of a markup template. If <name> is omitted then it is the value of the regular expression match group named name. Here's what happens during macro substitution
18. TablesTables are the most complex AsciiDoc elements and this section is
quite long.
18.1. Example TablesThe following annotated examples are all you'll need to start creating your own tables. The only non-obvious thing you'll need to remember are the column stop characters:
Simple table: `---`--- 1 2 3 4 5 6 -------- Output:
Table with title, header and footer: .An example table [grid="all"] '---------.-------------- Column 1 Column 2 ------------------------- 1 Item 1 2 Item 2 3 Item 3 ------------------------- 6 Three items ------------------------- Output:
Four columns totaling 15% of the pagewidth, CSV data: [frame="all"] ````~15 1,2,3,4 a,b,c,d A,B,C,D ~~~~~~~~ Output:
A table with a numeric ruler and externally sourced CSV data: [frame="all", grid="all"] .15`20`25`20`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ID,Customer Name,Contact Name,Customer Address,Phone ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ include::customers.csv[] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Renders:
18.2. AsciiDoc Table Block ElementsThis sub-section details the AsciiDoc table format. Table ::= (Ruler,Header?,Body,Footer?) Header ::= (Row+,Underline) Footer ::= (Row+,Underline) Body ::= (Row+,Underline) Row ::= (Data+) A table is terminated when the table underline is followed by a blank line or an end of file. Table underlines which separate table headers, bodies and footers should not be followed by a blank line. 18.2.1. RulerThe first line of the table is called the Ruler. The Ruler specifies which configuration file table definition to use, column widths, column alignments and the overall table width. There are two ruler formats:
The ruler format can be summarized as: ruler ::= ((colstop,colwidth?,fillchar*)+, fillchar+, tablewidth?
18.2.2. Row and Data ElementsEach table row consists of a line of text containing the same number of Data items as there are columns in the table, Lines ending in a backslash character are continued on the next line. Each Data item is an AsciiDoc substitutable string. The substitutions performed are specified by the subs table definition entry. Data cannot contain AsciiDoc block elements. The format of the row is determined by the table definition format value:
18.2.3. UnderlineA table Underline consists of a line of three or more fillchar characters which are end delimiters for table header, footer and body sections. 18.2.4. Attribute ListThe following optional table attributes can be specified in an AttributeList preceding the table:
You can also use an AttributeList to override the following table definition and ruler parameters: format, subs, tablewidth. 18.2.5. Markup AttributesThe following attributes are automatically available inside table tag and markup templates.
The colwidth value is calculated as (N is the ruler column width number and M is the sum of the ruler column widths): ( N / M ) * pagewidth If the ruler tablewidth was specified the column width is multiplied again by this value. There is one exception: character rulers that have no pagewidth specified. In this case the colwidth value is calculated as (where N is the column character width measured on the table ruler): ( N / textwidth ) * pagewidth The following attributes are available to the table markup template:
19. Manpage DocumentsSooner or later, if you program for a UNIX environment, you're going to have to write a man page. By observing a couple of additional conventions you can compose AsciiDoc files that will translate to a DocBook refentry (man page) document. The resulting DocBook file can then be translated to the native roff man page format (or other formats). For example, the asciidoc.1.txt file in the AsciiDoc distribution ./doc directory was used to generate both the asciidoc.1.css-embedded.html HTML file the asciidoc.1 roff formatted asciidoc(1) man page. To find out more about man pages view the man(7) manpage (man 7 man and man man-pages commands). 19.1. Document HeaderA document Header is mandatory. The title line contains the man page name followed immediately by the manual section number in brackets, for example ASCIIDOC(1). The title name should not contain white space and the manual section number is a single digit optionally followed by a single character. 19.2. The NAME SectionThe first manpage section is mandatory, must be titled NAME and must contain a single paragraph (usually a single line) consisting of a list of one or more comma separated command name(s) separated from the command purpose by a dash character. The dash must have at least one white space character on either side. For example: printf, fprintf, sprintf - print formatted output 19.3. The SYNOPSIS SectionThe second manpage section is mandatory and must be titled SYNOPSIS. 19.4. refmiscinfo attributesIn addition to the automatically created man page intrinsic attributes you can assign DocBook refmiscinfo element source, version and manual values using AsciiDoc {mansource}, {manversion} and {manmanual} attributes respectively. This example is from the AsciiDoc header of a man page source file: :man source: AsciiDoc :man version: {revision} :man manual: AsciiDoc Manual 20. Configuration FilesAsciiDoc source file syntax and output file markup is largely controlled by a set of cascading, text based, configuration files. At runtime The AsciiDoc default configuration files are combined with optional user and document specific configuration files. 20.1. Configuration File FormatConfiguration files contain named sections. Each section begins with a section name in square brackets []. The section body consists of the lines of text between adjacent section headings.
20.2. Markup Template SectionsMarkup template sections supply backend markup for translating AsciiDoc elements. Since the text is normally backend dependent you'll find these sections in the backend specific configuration files. A markup template section body can contain:
The document content placeholder is a single | character and is replaced by text from the source element. Use the {brvbar} attribute reference if you need a literal | character in the template. 20.3. Special SectionsAsciiDoc reserves the following predefined special section names for specific purposes:
Each line of text in a special section is a section entry. Section entries share the following syntax:
Section entry behavior
20.3.1. MiscellaneousThe optional [miscellaneous] section specifies the following name=value options:
20.3.2. Titles
20.3.3. TagsThe [tags] section contains backend tag definitions (one per line). Tags are used to translate AsciiDoc elements to backend markup. An AsciiDoc tag definition is formatted like <tagname>=<starttag>|<endtag>. For example: emphasis=<em>|</em> In this example asciidoc(1) replaces the | character with the emphasized text from the AsciiDoc input file and writes the result to the output file. Use the {brvbar} attribute reference if you need to include a | pipe character inside tag text. 20.3.4. Attributes SectionThe optional [attributes] section contains predefined attributes. If the attribute value requires leading or trailing spaces then the text text should be enclosed in double-quote (") characters. To delete a attribute insert a name only entry in a downstream configuration file or use the asciidoc(1) —attribute name! command-line option (the attribute name is suffixed with a ! character to delete it). 20.3.5. Special CharactersThe [specialcharacters] section specifies how to escape characters reserved by the backend markup. Each translation is specified on a single line formatted like: special_character=translated_characters Special characters are normally confined to those that resolve markup ambiguity (in the case of SGML/XML markups the ampersand, less than and greater than characters). The following example causes all occurrences of the < character to be replaced by <. <=< 20.3.6. Quoted TextQuoting is used primarily for text formatting. The [quotes] section defines AsciiDoc quoting characters and their corresponding backend markup tags. Each section entry value is the name of a of a [tags] section entry. The entry name is the character (or characters) that quote the text. The following examples are taken from AsciiDoc configuration files: [quotes] _=emphasis [tags] emphasis=<em>|</em> You can specify the left and right quote strings separately by separating them with a | character, for example: ``|''=quoted Omitting the tag will disable quoting, for example, if you don't want superscripts or subscripts put the following in a custom configuration file or edit the global asciidoc.conf configuration file: [quotes] ^= ~= Unconstrained quotes are differentiated by prefixing the tag name with a hash character, for example: __=#emphasis Quoted text behavior
20.3.7. Special WordsThe [specialwords] section is used to single out words and phrases that you want to consistently format in some way throughout your document without having to repeatedly specify the markup. The name of each entry corresponds to a markup template section and the entry value consists of a list of words and phrases to be marked up. For example: [specialwords] strongwords=NOTE: IMPORTANT: [strongwords] <strong>{words}</strong> The examples specifies that any occurrence of NOTE: or IMPORTANT: should appear in a bold font. Words and word phrases are treated as Python regular expressions: for example, the word ^NOTE: would only match NOTE: if appeared at the start of a line. AsciiDoc comes with three built-in Special Word types: emphasizedwords, monospacedwords and strongwords, each has a corresponding (backend specific) markup template section. Edit the configuration files to customize existing Special Words and to add new ones. Special word behavior
20.3.8. Replacements[replacements] and [replacements2] configuration file entries specify find and replace text and are formatted like: find_pattern=replacement_text The find text can be a Python regular expression; the replace text can contain Python regular expression group references. Use Replacement shortcuts for often used macro references, for example (the second replacement allows us to backslash escape the macro name): NEW!=image:./images/smallnew.png[New!] \\NEW!=NEW! Replacement behavior
20.4. Configuration File Names and LocationsConfiguration files have a .conf file name extension; they are loaded implicitly (using predefined file names and locations) or explicitly (using the asciidoc(1) -f (—conf-file) command-line option). Implicit configuration files are loaded from the following directories in the following order:
The following implicit configuration files from each of the above locations are loaded in the following order:
Where <backend> and <doctype> are values specified by the asciidoc(1) -b (—backend) and -d (—doctype) command-line options. <lang> is the value of the AsciiDoc lang attribute (defaults to en (English)). Finally, configuration files named like the source file will be automatically loaded if they are found in the source file directory. For example if the source file is mydoc.txt and the —backend=html4 option is used then asciidoc(1) will look for mydoc.conf and mydoc-html4.conf in that order. Implicit configuration files that don't exist will be silently skipped. The user can explicitly specify additional configuration files using the asciidoc(1) -f (—conf-file) command-line option. The -f option can be specified multiple times, in which case configuration files will be processed in the order they appear on the command-line. For example, when we translate our AsciiDoc document mydoc.txt with: $ asciidoc -f extra.conf mydoc.txt Configuration files (if they exist) will be processed in the following order:
21. Document AttributesA document attribute is comprised of a name and a textual value and is used for textual substitution in AsciiDoc documents and configuration files. An attribute reference (an attribute name enclosed in braces) is replaced by its corresponding attribute value. There are four sources of document attributes (from highest to lowest precedence):
Within each of these divisions the last processed entry takes precedence.
22. Attribute EntriesThe AttributeEntry block element allows document attributes to be assigned within an AsciiDoc document. Attribute entries are added to the global document attributes dictionary. The attribute name/value syntax is a single line like: :<name>: <value> For example: :Author Initials: JB This will set an attribute reference {authorinitials} to the value JB in the current document. To delete (undefine) an attribute use the following syntax: :<name>!: AttributeEntry properties
Here's another example: AsciiDoc User Manual ==================== :Author: Stuart Rackham :Email: srackham@gmail.com :Date: April 23, 2004 :Revision: 5.1.1 :Key words: linux, ralink, debian, wireless :Revision history: Which creates these attributes: {author}, {firstname}, {lastname}, {authorinitials}, {email}, {date}, {revision}, {keywords}, {revisionhistory} The preceding example is equivalent to the standard AsciiDoc two line
document header. Actually it's a little bit different with the
addition of the {keywords} and {revisionhistory} attributes
23. Attribute ListsAn attribute list is a comma separated list of attribute values. The entire list is enclosed in square brackets. Attribute lists are used to pass parameters to macros, blocks and inline quotes. The list consists of zero or more positional attribute values followed by zero or more named attribute values. Here are three examples: [Hello] [quote, Bertrand Russell, The World of Mathematics (1956)] ["22 times", backcolor="#0e0e0e", options="noborders,wide"] Attribute list properties
23.1. Macro Attribute listsMacros calls are suffixed with an attribute list. The list may be empty but it cannot be omitted. List entries are used to pass attribute values to macro markup templates. 23.2. AttributeList ElementAn attribute list on a line by itself constitutes an AttributeList block element, its function is to parametrize the following block element. The list attributes are passed to the next block element for markup template substitution. 24. Attribute ReferencesAn attribute references is an attribute name (possibly followed by an additional parameters) enclosed in braces. When an attribute reference is encountered it is evaluated and replaced by its corresponding text value. If the attribute is undefined the line containing the attribute is dropped. There are three types of attribute reference: Simple, Conditional and System. Attribute reference behavior
24.1. Simple Attributes ReferencesSimple attribute references take the form {<name>}. If the attribute name is defined its text value is substituted otherwise the line containing the reference is dropped from the output. 24.2. Conditional Attribute ReferencesAdditional parameters are used in conjunction with the attribute name to calculate a substitution value. Conditional attribute references take the following forms:
24.2.1. Conditional attribute examplesConditional attributes are mainly used in AsciiDoc configuration files — see the distribution .conf files for examples.
24.3. System Attribute ReferencesSystem attribute references generate the attribute text value by executing a predefined action that is parametrized by a single argument. The syntax is {<action>:<argument>}.
System reference behavior
25. Intrinsic AttributesIntrinsic attributes are simple attributes that are created automatically from AsciiDoc document header parameters, asciidoc(1) command-line arguments, execution parameters along with attributes defined in the default configuration files. Here's the list of predefined intrinsic attributes: {asciidoc-dir} the asciidoc(1) application directory {asciidoc-version} the version of asciidoc(1) {author} author's full name {authored} empty string '' if {author} or {email} defined, {authorinitials} author initials (from document header) {backend-<backend>} empty string '' {<backend>-<doctype>} empty string '' {backend} document backend specified by `-b` option {basebackend-<base>} empty string '' {basebackend} html or docbook {brvbar} broken vertical bar (|) character {date} document date (from document header) {docname} document file name without extension {doctitle} document title (from document header) {doctype-<doctype>} empty string '' {doctype} document type specified by `-d` option {email} author's email address (from document header) {empty} empty string '' {filetype-<fileext>} empty string '' {filetype} output file name file extension {firstname} author first name (from document header) {gt} greater than (>) character {id} running block id generated by BlockId elements {indir} document input directory name (note 1) {infile} input file name (note 1) {lastname} author last name (from document header) {listindex} the list index (1..) of the most recent list item {localdate} the current date {localtime} the current time {lt} less than (<) character {manname} manpage name (defined in NAME section) {manpurpose} manpage (defined in NAME section) {mantitle} document title minus the manpage volume number {manvolnum} manpage volume number (1..8) (from document header) {middlename} author middle name (from document header) {outdir} document output directory name (note 1) {outfile} output file name (note 1) {revision} document revision number (from document header) {sectnum} section number (in section titles) {title} section title (in titled elements) {user-dir} the ~/.asciidoc directory (if it exists) {verbose} defined as '' if --verbose command option specified NOTES
26. Block Element DefinitionsThe syntax and behavior of Paragraph, DelimitedBlock, List and Table block elements is determined by block definitions contained in AsciiDoc configuration file sections. Each definition consists of a section title followed by one or more section entries. Each entry defines a block parameter controlling some aspect of the block's behavior. Here's an example: [blockdef-listing] delimiter=^-{4,}$ template=listingblock presubs=specialcharacters,callouts AsciiDoc Paragraph, DelimitedBlock, List and Table block elements share a common subset of configuration file parameters:
The following block parameters behave like document attributes and can be set in block attribute lists and style definitions: template, options, subs, presubs, postsubs, filter. 26.1. StylesA style is a set of block attributes bundled as a single named attribute. The following example defines a style named verbatim: verbatim-style=template="literalblock",subs="verbatim",font="monospaced"
26.2. ParagraphsParagraph translation is controlled by [paradef*] configuration file section entries. Users can define new types of paragraphs and modify the behavior of existing types by editing AsciiDoc configuration files. Here is the shipped Default paragraph definition: [paradef-default] delimiter=(?P<text>\S.*) template=paragraph The Default paragraph definition has a couple of special properties:
Paragraph specific block parameter notes:
Paragraph processing proceeds as follows:
26.3. Delimited BlocksDelimitedBlock specific block definition notes:
presubs, postsubs and filter entries are meaningless when sectionbody, skip or list options are set. DelimitedBlock processing proceeds as follows:
26.4. ListsList behavior and syntax is determined by [listdef*] configuration file sections. The user can change existing list behavior and add new list types by editing configuration files. List specific block definition notes:
The tag entries map the AsciiDoc list structure to backend markup; see the AsciiDoc distribution .conf configuration files for examples. 26.5. TablesTable behavior and syntax is determined by [tabledef*] configuration file sections. The user can change existing list behavior and add new list types by editing configuration files. Table specific block definition notes:
Table behavior is also influenced by the following [miscellaneous] configuration file entries:
Table definition behavior
27. FiltersFilters are external shell commands used to process Paragraph and DelimitedBlock content; they are specified in configuration file Paragraph and DelimitedBlock definitions. There's nothing special about the filters, they're just standard UNIX filters: they read text from the standard input, process it, and write to the standard output. Attribute substitution is performed on the filter command prior to execution — attributes can be used to pass parameters from the AsciiDoc source document to the filter.
27.1. Filter Search PathsIf the filter command does not specify a directory path then asciidoc(1) searches for the command:
27.2. Filter Configuration FilesFilters are normally accompanied by a configuration file containing a Paragraph or DelimitedBlock definition along with corresponding markup templates. There are two ways to implement filters:
asciidoc(1) auto-loads all .conf files found in the filter search paths (see previous section). 27.3. Code FilterAsciiDoc comes with a simple minded for highlighting source code keywords and comments. See also the ./filters/code-filter-readme.txt file.
.Code filter example [code,python] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ''' A multi-line comment.''' def sub_word(mo): ''' Single line comment.''' word = mo.group('word') # Inline comment if word in keywords[language]: return quote + word + quote else: return word ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Outputs: Example: Code filter example
''' A multi-line comment.''' def sub_word(mo): ''' Single line comment.''' word = mo.group('word') # Inline comment if word in keywords[language]: return quote + word + quote else: return word 27.4. Source Code Highlighter FilterA source code highlighter filter can be found in the AsciiDoc distribution ./filters directory. 27.5. Music FilterA music filter is included in the distribution ./filters directory. It translates music in LilyPond or ABC notation to standard Western classical notation in the form of a trimmed PNG image which is automatically inserted into the output document. 28. Converting DocBook to other file formatsDocBook files are validated, parsed and translated by a combination of applications collectively called a DocBook tool chain. The function of a tool chain is to read the DocBook markup (produced by AsciiDoc) and transform it to a presentation format (for example HTML, PDF, HTML Help, DVI, PostScript, LaTeX). A wide range of user output format requirements coupled with a choice of available tools and stylesheets results in many valid tool chain combinations. 28.1. a2x Toolchain WrapperOne of the biggest hurdles for new users is installing, configuring and using a DocBook XML toolchain. a2x(1) can help — it's a toolchain wrapper command that will generate XHTML (chunked and unchunked), PDF, DVI, PS, LaTeX, man page, HTML Help and text file outputs from an AsciiDoc text file. a2x(1) does all the grunt work associated with generating and sequencing the toolchain commands and managing intermediate and output files. a2x(1) also optionally deploys admonition and navigation icons and a CSS stylesheet. See the a2x(1) man page for more details. All you need is xsltproc(1), DocBook XSL Stylesheets and, optionally dblatex or FOP (if you want PDF), or lynx(1) (if you want text). The following examples generate doc/source-highlight-filter.pdf from the AsciiDoc doc/source-highlight-filter.txt source file. The first example uses dblatex(1) (the default PDF generator) the second example forces FOP to be used: $ a2x -f pdf doc/source-highlight-filter.txt $ a2x -f pdf --fop-options="" doc/source-highlight-filter.txt See the a2x(1) man page for details.
28.2. HTML generationAsciiDoc produces nicely styled HTML directly without requiring a DocBook toolchain but there are also advantages in going the DocBook route:
On the other hand, HTML output directly from AsciiDoc is much faster, is easily customized and can be used in situations where there is no suitable DocBook toolchain (see the AsciiDoc website for example). 28.3. PDF generationdblatex or FOP?
28.4. HTML Help generation
28.5. Toolchain components summary
28.6. AsciiDoc dblatex configuration filesThe AsciiDoc distribution ./dblatex directory contains asciidoc-dblatex.xsl (customized XSL parameter settings) and asciidoc-dblatex.sty (customized LaTeX settings). These are examples of optional dblatex output customization and are used by a2x(1). 28.7. AsciiDoc DocBook XSL Stylesheets driversYou will have noticed that the distributed HTML and HTML Help documentation files (for example ./doc/asciidoc.html) are not the plain outputs produced using the default DocBook XSL Stylesheets configuration. This is because they have been processed using customized DocBook XSL Stylesheets along with (in the case of HTML outputs) the custom ./stylesheets/docbook.css CSS stylesheet. You'll find the customized DocBook XSL drivers along with additional documentation in the distribution ./docbook-xsl directory. The examples that follow are executed from the distribution documentation (./doc) directory.
If you want to see how the complete documentation set is processed take a look at the A-A-P script ./doc/main.aap. 29. Generating Plain Text FilesAsciiDoc does not have a text backend (for most purposes AsciiDoc source text is fine), however you can convert AsciiDoc text files to formatted text using the AsciiDoc a2x(1) toolchain wrapper utility. 30. XML and Character SetsThe default XML character set UTF-8 is used when AsciiDoc generates DocBook files but this can be changed by setting the xmldecl entry in the [attributes] section of the docbook.conf file or by composing your own configuration file [header] section).
If your system has been configured with an XML catalog you may find a number of entity sets are already automatically included. 30.1. PDF FontsThe Adobe PDF Specification states that the following 14 fonts should be available to every PDF reader: Helvetica (normal, bold, italic, bold italic), Times (normal, bold, italic, bold italic), Courier (normal, bold, italic, bold italic), Symbol and ZapfDingbats. Non-standard fonts should be embedded in the distributed document. 31. Help CommandsThe asciidoc(1) command has a --help option which prints help topics to stdout. The default topic summarizes asciidoc(1) usage: $ asciidoc --help To print a list of help topics: $ asciidoc --help=topics To print a help topic specify the topic name as a command argument. Help topic names can be shortened so long as they are not ambiguous. Examples: $ asciidoc --help=manpage $ asciidoc -hm # Short version of previous example. $ asciidoc --help=syntax $ asciidoc -hs # Short version of previous example. 31.1. Customizing HelpTo change, delete or add your own help topics edit a help configuration file. The help file name help-<lang>.conf is based on the setting of the lang attribute, it defaults to help.conf (English). The help file location will depend on whether you want the topics to apply to all users or just the current user. The help topic files have the same named section format as other configuration files. The help.conf files are stored in the same locations and loaded in the same order as other configuration files. When the --help command-line option is specified AsciiDoc loads the appropriate help files and then prints the contents of the section whose name matches the help topic name. If a topic name is not specified default is used. You don't need to specify the whole help topic name on the command-line, just enough letters to ensure it's not ambiguous. If a matching help file section is not found a list of available topics is printed. 32. Tips and Tricks32.1. Know Your EditorWriting AsciiDoc documents will be a whole lot more pleasant if you know your favorite text editor. Learn how to indent and reformat text blocks, paragraphs, lists and sentences. Tips for vim users follow. 32.2. Vim Commands for Formatting AsciiDoc32.2.1. Text Wrap ParagraphsUse the vim :gq command to reformat paragraphs. Setting the textwidth sets the right text wrap margin; for example: :set textwidth=70 To reformat a paragraph:
Execute :help gq command to read about the vim gq command.
32.2.2. Format ListsThe gq command can also be used to format bulleted and numbered lists. First you need to set the comments and formatoptions (see the Example ~/.vimrc file). Now you can format simple lists that use dash, asterisk, period and plus bullets along with numbered ordered lists:
32.2.3. Indent ParagraphsIndent whole paragraphs by indenting the fist line with the desired indent and then executing the gq} command. 32.2.4. Example ~/.vimrc File" Show tabs and trailing characters. set listchars=tab:»·,trail:· set list " Don't highlight searched text. highlight clear Search " Don't move to matched text while search pattern is being entered. set noincsearch " Q command to reformat paragraphs and list. nnoremap Q gq} " W command to delete trailing white space and Dos-returns and to expand tabs " to spaces. nnoremap W :%s/[\r \t]\+$//<CR>:set et<CR>:retab!<CR> autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt,README,TODO,CHANGELOG,NOTES \ setlocal autoindent expandtab tabstop=8 softtabstop=2 shiftwidth=2 \ textwidth=70 wrap formatoptions=tcqn \ comments=s1:/*,ex:*/,://,b:#,:%,:XCOMM,fb:-,fb:*,fb:+,fb:.,fb:> 32.3. Troubleshooting
32.4. Gotchas
32.5. Combining Separate DocumentsYou have a number of stand-alone AsciiDoc documents that you want to process as a single document. Simply processing them with a series of include macros won't work, because instead of starting at level 1 the section levels of the combined document start at level 0 (the document title level). The solution is to redefine the title underlines so that document and section titles are pushed down one level.
Actually the —conf-file option is unnecessary as asciidoc(1) automatically looks for a same-named .conf file.
32.6. Processing Document Sections SeparatelyYou have divided your AsciiDoc document into separate files (one per top level section) which are combined and processed with the following top level document: Combined Document Title ======================= Joe Bloggs v1.0, 12-Aug-03 include::section1.txt[] include::section2.txt[] include::section3.txt[] You also want to process the section files as separate documents. This is easy because asciidoc(1) will quite happily process section1.txt, section2.txt and section3.txt separately. If you want to promote the section levels up one level, so the document is processed just like a stand-alone document, then pop the section underline definition up one level: [titles] underlines="--","~~","^^","++","__" The last "__" underline is a dummy that won't actually be used but is necessary to legitimize the underline definition. This is just the reverse of the technique used for combining separate documents explained in the previous section. 32.7. Processing Document Chunksasciidoc(1) can be used as a filter, so you can pipe chunks of text through it. For example: $ echo 'Hello *World!*' | asciidoc -s - <div class="para"><p>Hello <strong>World!</strong></p></div> The -s (—no-header-footer) command-line option suppresses header and footer output and is useful if the processed output is to be included in another file. 32.8. Badges in HTML Page FootersSee the [footer] section in the AsciiDoc distribution xhtml11.conf configuration file. 32.9. Pretty Printing AsciiDoc OutputIf the indentation and layout of the asciidoc(1) output is not to your liking you can:
HTML Tidy can be downloaded from http://tidy.sourceforge.net/ 32.10. Supporting Minor DocBook DTD VariationsThe conditional inclusion of DocBook SGML markup at the end of the distribution docbook.conf file illustrates how to support minor DTD variations. The included sections override corresponding entries from preceding sections. 32.11. Shipping Stand-alone AsciiDoc SourceReproducing presentation documents from someone else's source has one major problem: unless your configuration files are the same as the creator's you won't get the same output. The solution is to create a single backend specific configuration file using the asciidoc(1) -c (—dump-conf) command-line option. You then ship this file along with the AsciiDoc source document plus the asciidoc.py script. The only end user requirement is that they have Python installed (and of course that they consider you a trusted source). This example creates a composite HTML configuration file for mydoc.txt: $ asciidoc -cb xhtml11 mydoc.txt > mydoc-xhtml11.conf Ship mydoc.txt, mydoc-html.conf, and asciidoc.py. With these three files (and a Python interpreter) the recipient can regenerate the HMTL output: $ ./asciidoc.py -eb xhtml11 mydoc.txt The -e (—no-conf) option excludes the use of implicit configuration files, ensuring that only entries from the mydoc-html.conf configuration are used. 32.12. Inserting Blank SpaceAdjust your style sheets to add the correct separation between block elements. Inserting blank paragraphs containing a single non-breaking space character {nbsp} works but is an ad hoc solution compared to using style sheets. 32.13. Closing Open SectionsYou can close off section tags up to level N by calling the eval::[Section.setlevel(N)] system macro. This is useful if you want to include a section composed of raw markup. The following example includes a DocBook glossary division at the top section level (level 0): ifdef::backend-docbook[] eval::[Section.setlevel(0)] +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <glossary> <title>Glossary</title> <glossdiv> ... </glossdiv> </glossary> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ endif::backend-docbook[] 32.14. Validating Output FilesUse xmllint(1) to check the AsciiDoc generated markup is both well formed and valid. Here are some examples: $ xmllint --nonet --noout --valid docbook-file.xml $ xmllint --nonet --noout --valid xhtml11-file.html $ xmllint --nonet --noout --valid --html html4-file.html The —valid option checks the file is valid against the document type's DTD, if the DTD is not installed in your system's catalog then it will be fetched from its Internet location. If you omit the —valid option the document will only be checked that it is well formed. 33. Glossary
34. Appendix A: Migration Notes34.1. Version 7 to version 8
The rationale for the changes can be found in the AsciiDoc CHANGELOG.
34.2. Version 6 to version 7The changes that affect the most users relate to renamed and deprecated backends and command-line syntax:
If you've customized version 6 distribution stylesheets then you'll need to either bring them in line with the new ./stylesheets/xhtml11*.css class and id names or stick with the backward compatible xhtml-deprecated backend. Changes to configuration file syntax:
35. Appendix B: Packager NotesRead the README and INSTALL files (in the distribution root directory) for install prerequisites and procedures. The distribution install.sh shell script is the canonical installation procedure and is the definitive installation description. Here's a summary of the installation procedure:
Leaving stylesheets and images in /usr/share/asciidoc/ ensures the docs and example website are not broken. 36. Appendix C: AsciiDoc Safe ModeAsciiDoc safe mode skips potentially dangerous sections in AsciiDoc source files by inhibiting the execution of arbitrary code or the inclusion of arbitrary files. The safe mode is enabled by default and can only be disabled using the asciidoc(1) —unsafe command-line option. Safe mode constraints
37. Appendix D: Using AsciiDoc with non-English LanguagesAsciiDoc can process UTF-8 character sets but there are some things you need to be aware of:
38. Appendix E: ASCIIMathML SupportASCIIMathML is a clever JavaScript written by Peter Jipsen that transforms mathematical formulae written in plain text to standard mathematical notation on an HTML page. To enable ASCIIMathML support on the xhtml11 backend include the -a asciimath command-line option. Here's what the asciimath attribute does:
When entering ASCIIMathML formulas you must enclose them inside double-dollar passthroughs (this is necessary because ASCIIMathML characters clash with AsciiDoc formatting characters). The double-dollar passthrough has the bonus of also escaping special characters so the output document is valid XHTML. You can see an ASCIIMathML example at http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/asciimath.html, the same example can be found in the AsciiDoc distribution ./doc directory.
39. Appendix F: Vim Syntax HighlighterThe AsciiDoc ./vim/ distribution directory contains Vim syntax highlighter and filetype detection scripts for AsciiDoc. Syntax highlighting makes it much easier to spot AsciiDoc syntax errors. If Vim is installed on your system the AsciiDoc installer (install.sh) will automatically install the vim scripts in the Vim global configuration directory (/etc/vim). You can also turn on syntax highlighting by adding the following line to the end of you AsciiDoc source files: // vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
39.1. LimitationsThe current implementation does a reasonable job but on occasions gets things wrong. This list of limitations also discusses how to work around the problems:
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