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<div class="section" id="additional-markup-constructs">
<h1>4. Additional Markup Constructs<a class="headerlink" href="#additional-markup-constructs" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Sphinx adds a lot of new directives and interpreted text roles to standard reST
markup. This section contains the reference material for these facilities.
Documentation for “standard” reST constructs is not included here, though
they are used in the Python documentation.</p>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">This is just an overview of Sphinx’ extended markup capabilities; full
coverage can be found in <a class="reference external" href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/contents.html">its own documentation</a>.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="meta-information-markup">
<h2>4.1. Meta-information markup<a class="headerlink" href="#meta-information-markup" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">sectionauthor</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Identifies the author of the current section. The argument should include
the author’s name such that it can be used for presentation (though it isn’t)
and email address. The domain name portion of the address should be lower
case. Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">sectionauthor</span><span class="p">::</span> Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Currently, this markup isn’t reflected in the output in any way, but it helps
keep track of contributions.</p>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="module-specific-markup">
<h2>4.2. Module-specific markup<a class="headerlink" href="#module-specific-markup" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The markup described in this section is used to provide information about a
module being documented. Each module should be documented in its own file.
Normally this markup appears after the title heading of that file; a typical
file might start like this:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="gh">:mod:`parrot` -- Dead parrot access</span>
<span class="gh">===================================</span>
<span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">module</span><span class="p">::</span> parrot
:platform: Unix, Windows
<span class="nc">:synopsis:</span> <span class="nf">Analyze and reanimate dead parrots.</span>
<span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">moduleauthor</span><span class="p">::</span> Eric Cleese <eric@python.invalid>
<span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">moduleauthor</span><span class="p">::</span> John Idle <john@python.invalid>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>As you can see, the module-specific markup consists of two directives, the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">module</span></tt> directive and the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">moduleauthor</span></tt> directive.</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">module</tt></dt>
<dd><p>This directive marks the beginning of the description of a module (or package
submodule, in which case the name should be fully qualified, including the
package name).</p>
<p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">platform</span></tt> option, if present, is a comma-separated list of the
platforms on which the module is available (if it is available on all
platforms, the option should be omitted). The keys are short identifiers;
examples that are in use include “IRIX”, “Mac”, “Windows”, and “Unix”. It is
important to use a key which has already been used when applicable.</p>
<p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">synopsis</span></tt> option should consist of one sentence describing the
module’s purpose – it is currently only used in the Global Module Index.</p>
<p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">deprecated</span></tt> option can be given (with no value) to mark a module as
deprecated; it will be designated as such in various locations then.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">moduleauthor</tt></dt>
<dd>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">moduleauthor</span></tt> directive, which can appear multiple times, names the
authors of the module code, just like <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">sectionauthor</span></tt> names the author(s)
of a piece of documentation. It too does not result in any output currently.</dd></dl>
<div class="admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">It is important to make the section title of a module-describing file
meaningful since that value will be inserted in the table-of-contents trees
in overview files.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="information-units">
<h2>4.3. Information units<a class="headerlink" href="#information-units" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>There are a number of directives used to describe specific features provided by
modules. Each directive requires one or more signatures to provide basic
information about what is being described, and the content should be the
description. The basic version makes entries in the general index; if no index
entry is desired, you can give the directive option flag <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:noindex:</span></tt>. The
following example shows all of the features of this directive type:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">function</span><span class="p">::</span> spam(eggs)
ham(eggs)
<span class="nc">:noindex:</span>
Spam or ham the foo.
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The signatures of object methods or data attributes should always include the
type name (<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">..</span> <span class="pre">method::</span> <span class="pre">FileInput.input(...)</span></tt>), even if it is obvious from the
context which type they belong to; this is to enable consistent
cross-references. If you describe methods belonging to an abstract protocol,
such as “context managers”, include a (pseudo-)type name too to make the
index entries more informative.</p>
<p>The directives are:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">cfunction</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Describes a C function. The signature should be given as in C, e.g.:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">cfunction</span><span class="p">::</span> PyObject<span class="ge">* PyType_GenericAlloc(PyTypeObject *</span>type, Py_ssize_t nitems)
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This is also used to describe function-like preprocessor macros. The names
of the arguments should be given so they may be used in the description.</p>
<p>Note that you don’t have to backslash-escape asterisks in the signature,
as it is not parsed by the reST inliner.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">cmember</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Describes a C struct member. Example signature:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">cmember</span><span class="p">::</span> PyObject* PyTypeObject.tp_bases
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The text of the description should include the range of values allowed, how
the value should be interpreted, and whether the value can be changed.
References to structure members in text should use the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">member</span></tt> role.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">cmacro</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes a “simple” C macro. Simple macros are macros which are used
for code expansion, but which do not take arguments so cannot be described as
functions. This is not to be used for simple constant definitions. Examples
of its use in the Python documentation include <a title="PyObject_HEAD" class="reference external" href="../c-api/structures.html#PyObject_HEAD"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">PyObject_HEAD</span></tt></a> and
<a title="Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS" class="reference external" href="../c-api/init.html#Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Py_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS</span></tt></a>.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">ctype</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes a C type. The signature should just be the type name.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">cvar</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Describes a global C variable. The signature should include the type, such
as:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">cvar</span><span class="p">::</span> PyObject* PyClass_Type
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">data</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes global data in a module, including both variables and values used
as “defined constants.” Class and object attributes are not documented
using this environment.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">exception</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes an exception class. The signature can, but need not include
parentheses with constructor arguments.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">function</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Describes a module-level function. The signature should include the
parameters, enclosing optional parameters in brackets. Default values can be
given if it enhances clarity. For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">function</span><span class="p">::</span> Timer.repeat([repeat=3[, number=1000000]])
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Object methods are not documented using this directive. Bound object methods
placed in the module namespace as part of the public interface of the module
are documented using this, as they are equivalent to normal functions for
most purposes.</p>
<p>The description should include information about the parameters required and
how they are used (especially whether mutable objects passed as parameters
are modified), side effects, and possible exceptions. A small example may be
provided.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">class</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes a class. The signature can include parentheses with parameters
which will be shown as the constructor arguments.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">attribute</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes an object data attribute. The description should include
information about the type of the data to be expected and whether it may be
changed directly.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">method</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes an object method. The parameters should not include the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">self</span></tt>
parameter. The description should include similar information to that
described for <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">function</span></tt>.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">opcode</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes a Python <a class="reference external" href="../glossary.html#term-bytecode"><em class="xref">bytecode</em></a> instruction.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">cmdoption</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Describes a command line option or switch. Option argument names should be
enclosed in angle brackets. Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">cmdoption</span><span class="p">::</span> -m <module>
Run a module as a script.
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">envvar</tt></dt>
<dd>Describes an environment variable that Python uses or defines.</dd></dl>
<p>There is also a generic version of these directives:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">describe</tt></dt>
<dd><p>This directive produces the same formatting as the specific ones explained
above but does not create index entries or cross-referencing targets. It is
used, for example, to describe the directives in this document. Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">describe</span><span class="p">::</span> opcode
Describes a Python bytecode instruction.
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="showing-code-examples">
<h2>4.4. Showing code examples<a class="headerlink" href="#showing-code-examples" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Examples of Python source code or interactive sessions are represented using
standard reST literal blocks. They are started by a <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">::</span></tt> at the end of the
preceding paragraph and delimited by indentation.</p>
<p>Representing an interactive session requires including the prompts and output
along with the Python code. No special markup is required for interactive
sessions. After the last line of input or output presented, there should not be
an “unused” primary prompt; this is an example of what <em>not</em> to do:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre>>>> 1 + 1
2
>>>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Syntax highlighting is handled in a smart way:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">There is a “highlighting language” for each source file. Per default,
this is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">'python'</span></tt> as the majority of files will have to highlight Python
snippets.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">Within Python highlighting mode, interactive sessions are recognized
automatically and highlighted appropriately.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">The highlighting language can be changed using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">highlightlang</span></tt>
directive, used as follows:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">highlightlang</span><span class="p">::</span> c
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This language is used until the next <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">highlightlang</span></tt> directive is
encountered.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">The values normally used for the highlighting language are:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">python</span></tt> (the default)</li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">c</span></tt></li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">rest</span></tt></li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">none</span></tt> (no highlighting)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><p class="first">If highlighting with the current language fails, the block is not highlighted
in any way.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Longer displays of verbatim text may be included by storing the example text in
an external file containing only plain text. The file may be included using the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">literalinclude</span></tt> directive. <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id2" id="id1">[1]</a> For example, to include the Python source file
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">example.py</span></tt>, use:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">literalinclude</span><span class="p">::</span> example.py
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The file name is relative to the current file’s path. Documentation-specific
include files should be placed in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Doc/includes</span></tt> subdirectory.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="inline-markup">
<h2>4.5. Inline markup<a class="headerlink" href="#inline-markup" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>As said before, Sphinx uses interpreted text roles to insert semantic markup in
documents.</p>
<p>Names of local variables, such as function/method arguments, are an exception,
they should be marked simply with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">*var*</span></tt>.</p>
<p>For all other roles, you have to write <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:rolename:`content`</span></tt>.</p>
<p>There are some additional facilities that make cross-referencing roles more
versatile:</p>
<ul>
<li><p class="first">You may supply an explicit title and reference target, like in reST direct
hyperlinks: <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:role:`title</span> <span class="pre"><target>`</span></tt> will refer to <em>target</em>, but the link
text will be <em>title</em>.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">If you prefix the content with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">!</span></tt>, no reference/hyperlink will be created.</p>
</li>
<li><p class="first">For the Python object roles, if you prefix the content with <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">~</span></tt>, the link
text will only be the last component of the target. For example,
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:meth:`~Queue.Queue.get`</span></tt> will refer to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">Queue.Queue.get</span></tt> but only
display <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">get</span></tt> as the link text.</p>
<p>In HTML output, the link’s <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">title</span></tt> attribute (that is e.g. shown as a
tool-tip on mouse-hover) will always be the full target name.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The following roles refer to objects in modules and are possibly hyperlinked if
a matching identifier is found:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">mod</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a module; a dotted name may be used. This should also be used for
package names.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">func</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a Python function; dotted names may be used. The role text
should not include trailing parentheses to enhance readability. The
parentheses are stripped when searching for identifiers.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">data</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a module-level variable or constant.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">const</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a “defined” constant. This may be a C-language <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">#define</span></tt>
or a Python variable that is not intended to be changed.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">class</tt></dt>
<dd>A class name; a dotted name may be used.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">meth</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a method of an object. The role text should include the type
name and the method name. A dotted name may be used.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">attr</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a data attribute of an object.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">exc</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of an exception. A dotted name may be used.</dd></dl>
<p>The name enclosed in this markup can include a module name and/or a class name.
For example, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:func:`filter`</span></tt> could refer to a function named <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">filter</span></tt> in
the current module, or the built-in function of that name. In contrast,
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:func:`foo.filter`</span></tt> clearly refers to the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">filter</span></tt> function in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo</span></tt>
module.</p>
<p>Normally, names in these roles are searched first without any further
qualification, then with the current module name prepended, then with the
current module and class name (if any) prepended. If you prefix the name with a
dot, this order is reversed. For example, in the documentation of the
<a title="Encode and decode data and streams." class="reference external" href="../library/codecs.html#module-codecs"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">codecs</span></tt></a> module, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:func:`open`</span></tt> always refers to the built-in function,
while <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:func:`.open`</span></tt> refers to <a title="codecs.open" class="reference external" href="../library/codecs.html#codecs.open"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">codecs.open()</span></tt></a>.</p>
<p>A similar heuristic is used to determine whether the name is an attribute of
the currently documented class.</p>
<p>The following roles create cross-references to C-language constructs if they
are defined in the API documentation:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">cdata</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a C-language variable.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">cfunc</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a C-language function. Should include trailing parentheses.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">cmacro</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a “simple” C macro, as defined above.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">ctype</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a C-language type.</dd></dl>
<p>The following role does possibly create a cross-reference, but does not refer
to objects:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">token</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a grammar token (used in the reference manual to create links
between production displays).</dd></dl>
<p>The following role creates a cross-reference to the term in the glossary:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">term</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Reference to a term in the glossary. The glossary is created using the
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">glossary</span></tt> directive containing a definition list with terms and
definitions. It does not have to be in the same file as the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">term</span></tt>
markup, in fact, by default the Python docs have one global glossary
in the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">glossary.rst</span></tt> file.</p>
<p>If you use a term that’s not explained in a glossary, you’ll get a warning
during build.</p>
</dd></dl>
<hr class="docutils" />
<p>The following roles don’t do anything special except formatting the text
in a different style:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">command</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of an OS-level command, such as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">rm</span></tt>.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">dfn</tt></dt>
<dd>Mark the defining instance of a term in the text. (No index entries are
generated.)</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">envvar</tt></dt>
<dd>An environment variable. Index entries are generated.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">file</tt></dt>
<dd><p>The name of a file or directory. Within the contents, you can use curly
braces to indicate a “variable” part, for example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="cp">... is installed in :file:`/usr/lib/python2.{x}/site-packages` ...</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>In the built documentation, the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">x</span></tt> will be displayed differently to
indicate that it is to be replaced by the Python minor version.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">guilabel</tt></dt>
<dd>Labels presented as part of an interactive user interface should be marked
using <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">guilabel</span></tt>. This includes labels from text-based interfaces such as
those created using <a title="(Unix) An interface to the curses library, providing portable terminal handling." class="reference external" href="../library/curses.html#module-curses"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">curses</span></tt></a> or other text-based libraries. Any label
used in the interface should be marked with this role, including button
labels, window titles, field names, menu and menu selection names, and even
values in selection lists.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">kbd</tt></dt>
<dd>Mark a sequence of keystrokes. What form the key sequence takes may depend
on platform- or application-specific conventions. When there are no relevant
conventions, the names of modifier keys should be spelled out, to improve
accessibility for new users and non-native speakers. For example, an
<em>xemacs</em> key sequence may be marked like <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:kbd:`C-x</span> <span class="pre">C-f`</span></tt>, but without
reference to a specific application or platform, the same sequence should be
marked as <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:kbd:`Control-x</span> <span class="pre">Control-f`</span></tt>.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">keyword</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a keyword in Python.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">mailheader</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of an RFC 822-style mail header. This markup does not imply that
the header is being used in an email message, but can be used to refer to any
header of the same “style.” This is also used for headers defined by the
various MIME specifications. The header name should be entered in the same
way it would normally be found in practice, with the camel-casing conventions
being preferred where there is more than one common usage. For example:
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:mailheader:`Content-Type`</span></tt>.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">makevar</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a <strong>make</strong> variable.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">manpage</tt></dt>
<dd>A reference to a Unix manual page including the section,
e.g. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:manpage:`ls(1)`</span></tt>.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">menuselection</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Menu selections should be marked using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">menuselection</span></tt> role. This is
used to mark a complete sequence of menu selections, including selecting
submenus and choosing a specific operation, or any subsequence of such a
sequence. The names of individual selections should be separated by
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">--></span></tt>.</p>
<p>For example, to mark the selection “Start > Programs”, use this markup:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="na">:menuselection:</span><span class="nv">`Start --> Programs`</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>When including a selection that includes some trailing indicator, such as the
ellipsis some operating systems use to indicate that the command opens a
dialog, the indicator should be omitted from the selection name.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">mimetype</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a MIME type, or a component of a MIME type (the major or minor
portion, taken alone).</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">newsgroup</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of a Usenet newsgroup.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">option</tt></dt>
<dd>A command-line option to an executable program. The leading hyphen(s) must
be included.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">program</tt></dt>
<dd>The name of an executable program. This may differ from the file name for
the executable for some platforms. In particular, the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">.exe</span></tt> (or other)
extension should be omitted for Windows programs.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">regexp</tt></dt>
<dd>A regular expression. Quotes should not be included.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">samp</tt></dt>
<dd><p>A piece of literal text, such as code. Within the contents, you can use
curly braces to indicate a “variable” part, as in <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:file:</span></tt>.</p>
<p>If you don’t need the “variable part” indication, use the standard
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">``code``</span></tt> instead.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">var</tt></dt>
<dd>A Python or C variable or parameter name.</dd></dl>
<p>The following roles generate external links:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">pep</tt></dt>
<dd>A reference to a Python Enhancement Proposal. This generates appropriate
index entries. The text “PEP <em>number</em>” is generated; in the HTML output,
this text is a hyperlink to an online copy of the specified PEP.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">rfc</tt></dt>
<dd>A reference to an Internet Request for Comments. This generates appropriate
index entries. The text “RFC <em>number</em>” is generated; in the HTML output,
this text is a hyperlink to an online copy of the specified RFC.</dd></dl>
<p>Note that there are no special roles for including hyperlinks as you can use
the standard reST markup for that purpose.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="cross-linking-markup">
<span id="doc-ref-role"></span><h2>4.6. Cross-linking markup<a class="headerlink" href="#cross-linking-markup" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>To support cross-referencing to arbitrary sections in the documentation, the
standard reST labels are “abused” a bit: Every label must precede a section
title; and every label name must be unique throughout the entire documentation
source.</p>
<p>You can then reference to these sections using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:ref:`label-name`</span></tt> role.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="cp">.. _my-reference-label:</span>
<span class="gh">Section to cross-reference</span>
<span class="gh">--------------------------</span>
This is the text of the section.
It refers to the section itself, see <span class="na">:ref:</span><span class="nv">`my-reference-label`</span>.
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">:ref:</span></tt> invocation is replaced with the section title.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="paragraph-level-markup">
<h2>4.7. Paragraph-level markup<a class="headerlink" href="#paragraph-level-markup" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>These directives create short paragraphs and can be used inside information
units as well as normal text:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">note</tt></dt>
<dd><p>An especially important bit of information about an API that a user should be
aware of when using whatever bit of API the note pertains to. The content of
the directive should be written in complete sentences and include all
appropriate punctuation.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">note</span><span class="p">::</span>
This function is not suitable for sending spam e-mails.
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">warning</tt></dt>
<dd>An important bit of information about an API that a user should be aware of
when using whatever bit of API the warning pertains to. The content of the
directive should be written in complete sentences and include all appropriate
punctuation. In the interest of not scaring users away from pages filled
with warnings, this directive should only be chosen over <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">note</span></tt> for
information regarding the possibility of crashes, data loss, or security
implications.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">versionadded</tt></dt>
<dd><p>This directive documents the version of Python which added the described
feature to the library or C API. When this applies to an entire module, it
should be placed at the top of the module section before any prose.</p>
<p>The first argument must be given and is the version in question; you can add
a second argument consisting of a <em>brief</em> explanation of the change.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">versionadded</span><span class="p">::</span> 2.5
The <span class="ge">*spam*</span> parameter.
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Note that there must be no blank line between the directive head and the
explanation; this is to make these blocks visually continuous in the markup.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">versionchanged</tt></dt>
<dd>Similar to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">versionadded</span></tt>, but describes when and what changed in the named
feature in some way (new parameters, changed side effects, etc.).</dd></dl>
<hr class="docutils" />
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">impl-detail</tt></dt>
<dd><p>This directive is used to mark CPython-specific information. Use either with
a block content or a single sentence as an argument, i.e. either</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">impl-detail</span><span class="p">::</span>
This describes some implementation detail.
More explanation.
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>or</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">impl-detail</span><span class="p">::</span> This shortly mentions an implementation detail.
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>“<strong>CPython implementation detail:</strong>” is automatically prepended to the
content.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">seealso</tt></dt>
<dd><p>Many sections include a list of references to module documentation or
external documents. These lists are created using the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">seealso</span></tt> directive.</p>
<p>The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">seealso</span></tt> directive is typically placed in a section just before any
sub-sections. For the HTML output, it is shown boxed off from the main flow
of the text.</p>
<p>The content of the <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">seealso</span></tt> directive should be a reST definition list.
Example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">seealso</span><span class="p">::</span>
Module <span class="na">:mod:</span><span class="nv">`zipfile`</span>
Documentation of the <span class="na">:mod:</span><span class="nv">`zipfile`</span> standard module.
<span class="s">`GNU tar manual, Basic Tar Format </span><span class="si"><http://link></span><span class="s">`_</span>
Documentation for tar archive files, including GNU tar extensions.
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">rubric</tt></dt>
<dd>This directive creates a paragraph heading that is not used to create a
table of contents node. It is currently used for the “Footnotes” caption.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">centered</tt></dt>
<dd><p>This directive creates a centered boldfaced paragraph. Use it as follows:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">centered</span><span class="p">::</span>
Paragraph contents.
</pre></div>
</div>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="table-of-contents-markup">
<h2>4.8. Table-of-contents markup<a class="headerlink" href="#table-of-contents-markup" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Since reST does not have facilities to interconnect several documents, or split
documents into multiple output files, Sphinx uses a custom directive to add
relations between the single files the documentation is made of, as well as
tables of contents. The <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">toctree</span></tt> directive is the central element.</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">toctree</tt></dt>
<dd><p>This directive inserts a “TOC tree” at the current location, using the
individual TOCs (including “sub-TOC trees”) of the files given in the
directive body. A numeric <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">maxdepth</span></tt> option may be given to indicate the
depth of the tree; by default, all levels are included.</p>
<p>Consider this example (taken from the library reference index):</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">toctree</span><span class="p">::</span>
<span class="nc">:maxdepth:</span> <span class="nf">2</span>
intro.rst
strings.rst
datatypes.rst
numeric.rst
(many more files listed here)
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This accomplishes two things:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Tables of contents from all those files are inserted, with a maximum depth
of two, that means one nested heading. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">toctree</span></tt> directives in those
files are also taken into account.</li>
<li>Sphinx knows that the relative order of the files <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">intro.rst</span></tt>,
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">strings.rst</span></tt> and so forth, and it knows that they are children of the
shown file, the library index. From this information it generates “next
chapter”, “previous chapter” and “parent chapter” links.</li>
</ul>
<p>In the end, all files included in the build process must occur in one
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">toctree</span></tt> directive; Sphinx will emit a warning if it finds a file that is
not included, because that means that this file will not be reachable through
standard navigation.</p>
<p>The special file <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">contents.rst</span></tt> at the root of the source directory is the
“root” of the TOC tree hierarchy; from it the “Contents” page is generated.</p>
</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="index-generating-markup">
<h2>4.9. Index-generating markup<a class="headerlink" href="#index-generating-markup" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Sphinx automatically creates index entries from all information units (like
functions, classes or attributes) like discussed before.</p>
<p>However, there is also an explicit directive available, to make the index more
comprehensive and enable index entries in documents where information is not
mainly contained in information units, such as the language reference.</p>
<p>The directive is <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">index</span></tt> and contains one or more index entries. Each entry
consists of a type and a value, separated by a colon.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">index</span><span class="p">::</span>
single: execution; context
module: __main__
module: sys
triple: module; search; path
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This directive contains five entries, which will be converted to entries in the
generated index which link to the exact location of the index statement (or, in
case of offline media, the corresponding page number).</p>
<p>The possible entry types are:</p>
<dl class="docutils">
<dt>single</dt>
<dd>Creates a single index entry. Can be made a subentry by separating the
subentry text with a semicolon (this notation is also used below to describe
what entries are created).</dd>
<dt>pair</dt>
<dd><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">pair:</span> <span class="pre">loop;</span> <span class="pre">statement</span></tt> is a shortcut that creates two index entries,
namely <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">loop;</span> <span class="pre">statement</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">statement;</span> <span class="pre">loop</span></tt>.</dd>
<dt>triple</dt>
<dd>Likewise, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">triple:</span> <span class="pre">module;</span> <span class="pre">search;</span> <span class="pre">path</span></tt> is a shortcut that creates three
index entries, which are <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">module;</span> <span class="pre">search</span> <span class="pre">path</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">search;</span> <span class="pre">path,</span> <span class="pre">module</span></tt> and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">path;</span> <span class="pre">module</span> <span class="pre">search</span></tt>.</dd>
<dt>module, keyword, operator, object, exception, statement, builtin</dt>
<dd>These all create two index entries. For example, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">module:</span> <span class="pre">hashlib</span></tt> creates
the entries <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">module;</span> <span class="pre">hashlib</span></tt> and <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">hashlib;</span> <span class="pre">module</span></tt>.</dd>
</dl>
<p>For index directives containing only “single” entries, there is a shorthand
notation:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">index</span><span class="p">::</span> BNF, grammar, syntax, notation
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>This creates four index entries.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="grammar-production-displays">
<h2>4.10. Grammar production displays<a class="headerlink" href="#grammar-production-displays" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Special markup is available for displaying the productions of a formal grammar.
The markup is simple and does not attempt to model all aspects of BNF (or any
derived forms), but provides enough to allow context-free grammars to be
displayed in a way that causes uses of a symbol to be rendered as hyperlinks to
the definition of the symbol. There is this directive:</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">productionlist</tt></dt>
<dd><p>This directive is used to enclose a group of productions. Each production is
given on a single line and consists of a name, separated by a colon from the
following definition. If the definition spans multiple lines, each
continuation line must begin with a colon placed at the same column as in the
first line.</p>
<p>Blank lines are not allowed within <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">productionlist</span></tt> directive arguments.</p>
<p>The definition can contain token names which are marked as interpreted text
(e.g. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">unaryneg</span> <span class="pre">::=</span> <span class="pre">"-"</span> <span class="pre">`integer`</span></tt>) – this generates cross-references
to the productions of these tokens.</p>
<p>Note that no further reST parsing is done in the production, so that you
don’t have to escape <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">*</span></tt> or <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">|</span></tt> characters.</p>
</dd></dl>
<p>The following is an example taken from the Python Reference Manual:</p>
<div class="highlight-rest"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="p">..</span> <span class="ow">productionlist</span><span class="p">::</span>
try_stmt: try1_stmt | try2_stmt
try1_stmt: "try" ":" <span class="nv">`suite`</span>
: ("except" [<span class="nv">`expression`</span> ["," <span class="nv">`target`</span>]] ":" <span class="nv">`suite`</span>)+
: ["else" ":" <span class="nv">`suite`</span>]
: ["finally" ":" <span class="nv">`suite`</span>]
try2_stmt: "try" ":" <span class="nv">`suite`</span>
: "finally" ":" <span class="nv">`suite`</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="substitutions">
<h2>4.11. Substitutions<a class="headerlink" href="#substitutions" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The documentation system provides three substitutions that are defined by default.
They are set in the build configuration file <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">conf.py</span></tt>.</p>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">|release|</tt></dt>
<dd>Replaced by the Python release the documentation refers to. This is the full
version string including alpha/beta/release candidate tags, e.g. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">2.5.2b3</span></tt>.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">|version|</tt></dt>
<dd>Replaced by the Python version the documentation refers to. This consists
only of the major and minor version parts, e.g. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">2.5</span></tt>, even for version
2.5.1.</dd></dl>
<dl class="describe">
<dt>
<tt class="descname">|today|</tt></dt>
<dd>Replaced by either today’s date, or the date set in the build configuration
file. Normally has the format <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">April</span> <span class="pre">14,</span> <span class="pre">2007</span></tt>.</dd></dl>
<p class="rubric">Footnotes</p>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id2" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id1">[1]</a></td><td>There is a standard <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">..</span> <span class="pre">include</span></tt> directive, but it raises errors if the
file is not found. This one only emits a warning.</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="sphinxsidebar">
<div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
<h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#">4. Additional Markup Constructs</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#meta-information-markup">4.1. Meta-information markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#module-specific-markup">4.2. Module-specific markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#information-units">4.3. Information units</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#showing-code-examples">4.4. Showing code examples</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#inline-markup">4.5. Inline markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#cross-linking-markup">4.6. Cross-linking markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#paragraph-level-markup">4.7. Paragraph-level markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#table-of-contents-markup">4.8. Table-of-contents markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#index-generating-markup">4.9. Index-generating markup</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#grammar-production-displays">4.10. Grammar production displays</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#substitutions">4.11. Substitutions</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Previous topic</h4>
<p class="topless"><a href="rest.html"
title="previous chapter">3. reStructuredText Primer</a></p>
<h4>Next topic</h4>
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title="next chapter">5. Differences to the LaTeX markup</a></p>
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</form>
<p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%">
Enter search terms or a module, class or function name.
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