docutils1

Generic command line interface for the docutils package

Usage

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

Overview

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

--output=<destination>: Output destination name. Obsoletes the <destination> positional argument. Default: None (stdout).

--title=<title>: Specify the document title as metadata.

--generator, -g: Include a "Generated by Docutils" credit and link.

--no-generator: Do not include a generator credit.

--date, -d: Include the date at the end of the document (UTC).

--time, -t: Include the time & date (UTC).

--no-datestamp: Do not include a datestamp of any kind.

--root-prefix=<path>: Base directory for absolute paths when reading from the local filesystem. Default "/".

--source-link, -s: Include a "View document source" link.

--source-url=<URL>: Use <URL> for a source link; implies --source-link.

--no-source-link: Do not include a "View document source" link.

--toc-entry-backlinks: Link from section headers to TOC entries. (default)

--toc-top-backlinks: Link from section headers to the top of the TOC.

--no-toc-backlinks: Disable backlinks to the table of contents.

--footnote-backlinks: Link from footnotes/citations to references. (default)

--no-footnote-backlinks: Disable backlinks from footnotes and citations.

--section-numbering: Enable section numbering by Docutils. (default)

--no-section-numbering: Disable section numbering by Docutils.

--strip-comments: Remove comment elements from the document tree.

--leave-comments: Leave comment elements in the document tree. (default)

--strip-elements-with-class=<class>: Remove all elements with classes="<class>" from the document tree. Warning: potentially dangerous; use with caution. (Multiple-use option.)

--strip-class=<class>: Remove all classes="<class>" attributes from elements in the document tree. Warning: potentially dangerous; use with caution. (Multiple-use option.)

--report=<level>, -r <level>: Report system messages at or higher than <level>: "info" or "1", "warning"/"2" (default), "error"/"3", "severe"/"4", "none"/"5"

--verbose, -v: Report all system messages. (Same as "--report=1".)

--quiet, -q: Report no system messages. (Same as "--report=5".)

--halt=<level>: Halt execution at system messages at or above <level>. Levels as in --report. Default: 4 (severe).

--strict: Halt at the slightest problem. Same as "--halt=info".

--exit-status=<level>: Enable a non-zero exit status for non-halting system messages at or above <level>. Default: 5 (disabled).

--debug: Enable debug-level system messages and diagnostics.

--no-debug: Disable debug output. (default)

--warnings=<file>: Send the output of system messages to <file>.

--traceback: Enable Python tracebacks when Docutils is halted.

--no-traceback: Disable Python tracebacks. (default)

--input-encoding=<name[:handler]>, -i <name[:handler]>: Specify the encoding and optionally the error handler of input text. Default: <auto-detect>:strict.

--input-encoding-error-handler=INPUT_ENCODING_ERROR_HANDLER: Specify the error handler for undecodable characters. Choices: "strict" (default), "ignore", and "replace".

--output-encoding=<name[:handler]>, -o <name[:handler]>: Specify the text encoding and optionally the error handler for output. Default: utf-8:strict.

--output-encoding-error-handler=OUTPUT_ENCODING_ERROR_HANDLER: Specify error handler for unencodable output characters; "strict" (default), "ignore", "replace", "xmlcharrefreplace", "backslashreplace".

--error-encoding=<name[:handler]>, -e <name[:handler]>: Specify text encoding and optionally error handler for error output. Default text encoding: system encoding. Default error handler: backslashreplace.

--error-encoding-error-handler=ERROR_ENCODING_ERROR_HANDLER: Specify the error handler for unencodable characters in error output. Default: backslashreplace.

--language=<name>, -l <name>: Specify the language (as BCP 47 language tag). Default: en.

--record-dependencies=<file>: Write output file dependencies to <file>.

--config=<file>: Read configuration settings from <file>, if it exists.

--version, -V: Show this program's version number and exit.

--help, -h: Show this help message and exit.

Generic Parser Options

--no-file-insertion: Disable directives that insert the contents of an external file; replaced with a "warning" system message.

--file-insertion-enabled: Enable directives that insert the contents of an external file. (default)

--no-raw: Disable the "raw" directive; replaced with a "warning" system message.

--raw-enabled: Enable the "raw" directive. (default)

--line-length-limit=<length>: Maximal number of characters in an input line. Default 10 000.

reStructuredText Parser Options

--pep-references: Recognize and link to standalone PEP references (like "PEP 258").

--pep-base-url=<URL>: Base URL for PEP references (default " <https://peps.python.org/> ").

--pep-file-url-template=<URL>: Template for PEP file part of URL. (default "pep-%04d")

--rfc-references: Recognize and link to standalone RFC references (like "RFC 822").

--rfc-base-url=<URL>: Base URL for RFC references (default " <https://tools.ietf.org/html/> ").

--tab-width=<width>: Set number of spaces for tab expansion (default 8).

--trim-footnote-reference-space: Remove spaces before footnote references.

--leave-footnote-reference-space: Leave spaces before footnote references.

--syntax-highlight=<format>: Token name set for parsing code with Pygments: one of "long", "short", or "none" (no parsing). Default is "long".

--smart-quotes=<yes/no/alt>: Change straight quotation marks to typographic form: one of "yes", "no", "alt[ernative]" (default "no").

--smartquotes-locales=<language:quotes[,language:quotes,...]>: Characters to use as "smart quotes" for <language>.

--word-level-inline-markup: Inline markup recognized at word boundaries only (adjacent to punctuation or whitespace). Force character-level inline markup recognition with "" (backslash + space). Default.

--character-level-inline-markup: 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

--no-doc-title: Disable the promotion of a lone top-level section title to document title (and subsequent section title to document subtitle promotion; enabled by default).

--no-doc-info: Disable the bibliographic field list transform (enabled by default).

--section-subtitles: Activate the promotion of lone subsection titles to section subtitles (disabled by default).

--no-section-subtitles: Deactivate the promotion of lone subsection titles.

HTML Writer Options

--template=<file>: Template file. (UTF-8 encoded, default: "/usr/share/do cutils/writers/html5_polyglot/template.txt")

--stylesheet=<URL[,URL,...]>: Comma separated list of stylesheet URLs. Overrides previous --stylesheet and --stylesheet-path settings.

--stylesheet-path=<file[,file,...]>: 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")

--stylesheet-dirs=<dir[,dir,...]>: 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-stylesheet: Embed the stylesheet(s) in the output HTML file. The stylesheet files must be accessible during processing. (default)

--link-stylesheet: Link to the stylesheet(s) in the output HTML file.

--initial-header-level=<level>: Specify the initial header level. Does not affect document title & subtitle (see --no-doc-title). (default: 2 for "<h2>")

--footnote-references=<format>: Format for footnote references: one of "superscript" or "brackets". (default: "brackets")

--attribution=<format>: Format for block quote attributions: one of "dash" (em-dash prefix), "parentheses"/"parens", or "none". (default: "dash")

--compact-lists: Remove extra vertical whitespace between items of "simple" bullet lists and enumerated lists. (default)

--no-compact-lists: Disable compact simple bullet and enumerated lists.

--compact-field-lists: Remove extra vertical whitespace between items of simple field lists. (default)

--no-compact-field-lists: Disable compact simple field lists.

--table-style=TABLE_STYLE: Added to standard table classes. Defined styles: borderless, booktabs, align-left, align-center, align- right, colwidths-auto, colwidths-grid.

--math-output=MATH_OUTPUT: Math output format (one of "MathML", "HTML", "MathJax", or "LaTeX") and option(s). (default: "HTML math.css")

--xml-declaration: Prepend an XML declaration.

--no-xml-declaration: Omit the XML declaration (default).

--cloak-email-addresses: Obfuscate email addresses to confuse harvesters while still keeping email links usable with standards- compliant browsers.

HTML5 Writer Options

--image-loading=IMAGE_LOADING: Suggest at which point images should be loaded: "embed", "link" (default), or "lazy".

--section-self-link: Append a self-link to section headings.

--no-section-self-link: 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=<reader>: Reader name (currently: "standalone").

--parser=<parser>: Parser name (currently: "rst").

--writer=<writer>: Writer name (currently: "html5").

History

Debian 13 (Trixie): the text shown here
Debian 12 (Bookworm)

--output since Debian 13 (Trixie); --root-prefix since Debian 13 (Trixie).