a2x - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

a2x - A toolchain manager for AsciiDoc (converts Asciidoc text files to other file
formats)

SYNOPSIS

a2x [OPTIONS] SOURCE_FILE

DESCRIPTION

A DocBook toolchain manager that translates an AsciiDoc text file SOURCE_FILE to PDF,
EPUB, DVI, PS, LaTeX, XHTML (single page or chunked), man page, HTML Help or plain text
formats using asciidoc(1) and other applications (see REQUISITES section). SOURCE_FILE can
also be a DocBook file with an .xml extension.

OPTIONS

-a, --attribute=ATTRIBUTE
Set asciidoc(1) attribute value (shortcut for --asciidoc-opts="-a ATTRIBUTE" option).
This option may be specified more than once.

--asciidoc-opts=ASCIIDOC_OPTS
Additional asciidoc(1) options. This option may be specified more than once.

--conf-file=CONF_FILE
Load configuration file. See CONF FILES section.

-D, --destination-dir=DESTINATION_DIR
Output directory. Defaults to SOURCE_FILE directory. This option is only applicable to
HTML based output formats (chunked, epub, htmlhelp, xhtml).

-d, --doctype=DOCTYPE
DocBook document type: article, manpage or book. Default document type is article
unless the format is manpage (in which case it defaults to manpage).

-b, --backend=BACKEND
BACKEND is the name of an installed backend plugin. When this option is specified a2x
attempts load a file name a2x-backend.py from the BACKEND plugin directory It then
converts the SOURCE_FILE to a BACKEND formatted output file using a global function
defined in a2x-backend.py called to_BACKEND.

-f, --format=FORMAT
Output formats: chunked, docbook, dvi, epub, htmlhelp, manpage, pdf (default), ps,
tex, text, xhtml. The AsciiDoc a2x-format attribute value is set to FORMAT.

-h, --help
Print command-line syntax and program options to stdout.

--icons
Use admonition or navigation icon images in output documents. The default behavior is
to use text in place of icons.

--icons-dir=PATH
A path (relative to output files) containing admonition and navigation icons. Defaults
to images/icons. The --icons option is implicit if this option is used.

-k, --keep-artifacts
Do not delete temporary build files.

--lynx
Use lynx(1) to generate text formatted output. The default behavior is to use w3m(1).

-L, --no-xmllint
Do not check asciidoc output with xmllint(1).

---epubcheck
Check EPUB output with epubcheck(1).

-n, --dry-run
Do not do anything just print what would have been done.

-r, --resource=RESOURCE_SPEC
Specify a resource. This option may be specified more than once. See the RESOURCES
section for more details.

-m, --resource-manifest=FILE
FILE contains a list resources (one per line). Manifest FILE entries are formatted
just like --resource option arguments. Environment variables and tilde home
directories are allowed.

--stylesheet=STYLESHEET
A space delimited list of one or more CSS stylesheet file names that are used to style
HTML output generated by DocBook XSL Stylesheets. Defaults to docbook-xsl.css. The
stylesheets are processed in list order. The stylesheets must reside in a valid
resource file location. Applies to HTML formats: xhtml, epub, chunked, htmlhelp
formats.

-v, --verbose
Print operational details to stderr. A second -v option applies the verbose option to
toolchain commands.

--version
Print program version to stdout.

--xsltproc-opts=XSLTPROC_OPTS
Additional xsltproc(1) options. This option may be specified more than once.

--xsl-file=XSL_FILE
Override the built-in XSL stylesheet with the custom XSL stylesheet XSL_FILE.

--fop
Use FOP to generate PDFs. The default behavior is to use dblatex(1). The --fop option
is implicit if this option is used.

--fop-opts=FOP_OPTS
Additional fop(1) options. If this option is specified FOP is used to generate PDFs.
This option may be specified more than once.

--dblatex-opts=DBLATEX_OPTS
Additional dblatex(1) options. This option may be specified more than once.

--backend-opts=BACKEND_OPTS
Options for the backend plugin specified by the --backend option. This option may be
specified more than once.

Options can also be set in the AsciiDoc source file. If SOURCE_FILE contains a comment
line beginning with // a2x: then the remainder of the line will be treated as a2x
command-line options. For example:

// a2x default options.
// a2x: -dbook --epubcheck
// Suppress revision history in dblatex outputs.
// a2x: --dblatex-opts "-P latex.output.revhistory=0"

· Options spanning multiple such comment lines will be concatenated.

· Zero or more white space characters can appear between the leading // and a2x:.

· Command-line options take precedence over options set in the source file.

OUTPUT FILES

Output files are written to the directory specified by the --destination-dir option. If no
--destination-dir option is set output files are written to the SOURCE_FILE directory.

Output files have the same name as the SOURCE_FILE but with an appropriate file name
extension: .html for xhtml; .epub for epub; .hhp for htmlhelp; .pdf for pdf; .text for
text, .xml for docbook. By convention manpages have no .man extension (man page section
number only). Chunked HTML directory names have a .chunked extension; chunked HTML Help
directory names have a .htmlhelp extension.

Same named existing files are overwritten.

In addition to generating HTML files the xhtml, epub, chunked and htmlhelp formats ensure
resource files are copied to their correct destination directory locations.

RESOURCES

Resources are files (typically CSS and images) that are required by HTML based outputs
(xhtml, epub, chunked, htmlhelp formats). a2x scans the generated HTML files and builds a
list of required CSS and image files. Additional resource files can be specified
explicitly using the --resource option.

a2x searches for resource files in the following locations in the following order:

1. The SOURCE_FILE directory.

2. Resource directories specified by the --resource option (searched recursively).

3. Resource directories specified by the --resource-manifest option (searched recursively
in the order they appear in the manifest file).

4. The stock images and stylesheets directories in the asciidoc(1) configuration files
directories (searched recursively).

5. The destination directory.

When a resource file is found it is copied to the correct relative destination directory.
Missing destination sub-directories are created automatically.

There are two distinct mechanisms for specifying additional resources:

1. A resource directory which will be searched recursively for missing resource files.

2. A resource file which will be copied to the output destination directory.

Resources are specified with --resource option values which can be one of the following
formats:

<resource_dir>
<resource_file>[=<destination_file>]
.<ext>=<mimetype>

Where:

<resource_dir>
Specifies a directory (absolute or relative to the SOURCE_FILE) which is searched
recursively for missing resource files. To eliminate ambiguity the <resource_dir> name
should end with a directory separator character.

<resource_file>
Specifies a resource file (absolute or relative to the SOURCE_FILE) which will be
copied to <destination_file>. If <destination_file> is not specified then it is the
same as the <resource_file>.

<destination_file>
Specifies the destination of the copied source file. The <destination_file> path is
relative to the destination directory (absolute paths are not allowed). The location
of the destination directory depends on the output FORMAT (see the OUTPUT FILES
section for details):

chunked, htmlhelp
The chunked output directory.

epub
The archived OEBPS directory.

xhtml
The output DESTINATION_DIR.

.<ext>=<mimetype>
When adding resources to EPUB files the mimetype is inferred from the <destination
file> extension, if the mimetype cannot be guessed an error occurs. The
.<ext>=<mimetype> resource syntax can be used to explicitly set mimetypes. <ext> is
the file name extension, <mimetype> is the corresponding MIME type.

Resource option examples:

--resource ../images/
--resource doc/README.txt=README.txt
--resource ~/images/tiger.png=images/tiger.png
--resource .ttf=application/x-font-ttf

EXAMPLES

a2x -f pdf doc/source-highlight-filter.txt
Generates doc/source-highlight-filter.pdf file.

a2x -f xhtml -D ../doc --icons -r ../images/ team.txt
Creates HTML file ../doc/team.html, uses admonition icons and recursively searches the
../images/ directory for any missing resources.

a2x -f manpage doc/asciidoc.1.txt
Generate doc/asciidoc.1 manpage.

REQUISITES

a2x uses the following programs:

· Asciidoc: http://asciidoc.org/

· xsltproc: (all formats except text): http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/

· DocBook XSL Stylesheets (all formats except text):
http://docbook.sourceforge.net/projects/xsl/

· dblatex (pdf, dvi, ps, tex formats): http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/

· FOP (pdf format — alternative PDF file generator): http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/

· w3m (text format): http://w3m.sourceforge.net/index.en.html

· Lynx (text format — alternative text file generator): http://lynx.isc.org/

· epubcheck (epub format — EPUB file validator): http://code.google.com/p/epubcheck/

See also the latest README file.

CONF FILES

A configuration file contains executable Python code that overrides the global
configuration parameters in a2x.py. Optional configuration files are loaded in the
following order:

1. a2x.conf from the directory containing the a2x.py executable.

2. a2x.conf from the AsciiDoc global configuration directory. Skip this step if we are
executing a locally installed (non system wide) copy.

3. a2x.conf from the AsciiDoc $HOME/.asciidoc configuration directory.

4. The CONF_FILE specified in the --conf-file option.

Here are the default configuration file option values:

# Optional environment variable dictionary passed to
# executing programs. If set to None the existing
# environment is used.
ENV = None

# External executables.
ASCIIDOC = 'asciidoc'
XSLTPROC = 'xsltproc'
DBLATEX = 'dblatex' # pdf generation.
FOP = 'fop' # pdf generation (--fop option).
W3M = 'w3m' # text generation.
LYNX = 'lynx' # text generation (if no w3m).
XMLLINT = 'xmllint' # Set to '' to disable.
EPUBCHECK = 'epubcheck' # Set to '' to disable.
# External executable default options.
ASCIIDOC_OPTS = ''
DBLATEX_OPTS = ''
FOP_OPTS = ''
XSLTPROC_OPTS = ''

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