.. _invocation: Invocation of sphinx-build ========================== The :program:`sphinx-build` script builds a Sphinx documentation set. It is called like this:: $ sphinx-build [options] sourcedir builddir [filenames] where *sourcedir* is the :term:`source directory`, and *builddir* is the directory in which you want to place the built documentation. Most of the time, you don't need to specify any *filenames*. The :program:`sphinx-build` script has several options: .. program:: sphinx-build .. option:: -b buildername The most important option: it selects a builder. The most common builders are: **html** Build HTML pages. This is the default builder. **dirhtml** Build HTML pages, but with a single directory per document. Makes for prettier URLs (no ``.html``) if served from a webserver. **singlehtml** Build a single HTML with the whole content. **htmlhelp**, **qthelp**, **devhelp**, **epub** Build HTML files with additional information for building a documentation collection in one of these formats. **latex** Build LaTeX sources that can be compiled to a PDF document using :program:`pdflatex`. **man** Build manual pages in groff format for UNIX systems. **texinfo** Build Texinfo files that can be processed into Info files using :program:`makeinfo`. **text** Build plain text files. **gettext** Build gettext-style message catalogs (``.pot`` files). **doctest** Run all doctests in the documentation, if the :mod:`~sphinx.ext.doctest` extension is enabled. **linkcheck** Check the integrity of all external links. **xml** Build Docutils-native XML files. **pseudoxml** Build compact pretty-printed "pseudo-XML" files displaying the internal structure of the intermediate document trees. See :ref:`builders` for a list of all builders shipped with Sphinx. Extensions can add their own builders. .. option:: -a If given, always write all output files. The default is to only write output files for new and changed source files. (This may not apply to all builders.) .. option:: -E Don't use a saved :term:`environment` (the structure caching all cross-references), but rebuild it completely. The default is to only read and parse source files that are new or have changed since the last run. .. option:: -t tag Define the tag *tag*. This is relevant for :rst:dir:`only` directives that only include their content if this tag is set. .. versionadded:: 0.6 .. option:: -d path Since Sphinx has to read and parse all source files before it can write an output file, the parsed source files are cached as "doctree pickles". Normally, these files are put in a directory called :file:`.doctrees` under the build directory; with this option you can select a different cache directory (the doctrees can be shared between all builders). .. option:: -j N Distribute the build over *N* processes in parallel, to make building on multiprocessor machines more effective. Note that not all parts and not all builders of Sphinx can be parallelized. .. versionadded:: 1.2 This option should be considered *experimental*. .. option:: -c path Don't look for the :file:`conf.py` in the source directory, but use the given configuration directory instead. Note that various other files and paths given by configuration values are expected to be relative to the configuration directory, so they will have to be present at this location too. .. versionadded:: 0.3 .. option:: -C Don't look for a configuration file; only take options via the ``-D`` option. .. versionadded:: 0.5 .. option:: -D setting=value Override a configuration value set in the :file:`conf.py` file. The value must be a number, string, list or dictionary value. For lists, you can separate elements with a comma like this: ``-D html_theme_path=path1,path2``. For dictionary values, supply the setting name and key like this: ``-D latex_elements.docclass=scrartcl``. For boolean values, use ``0`` or ``1`` as the value. .. versionchanged:: 0.6 The value can now be a dictionary value. .. versionchanged:: 1.3 The value can now also be a list value. .. option:: -A name=value Make the *name* assigned to *value* in the HTML templates. .. versionadded:: 0.5 .. option:: -n Run in nit-picky mode. Currently, this generates warnings for all missing references. See the config value :confval:`nitpick_ignore` for a way to exclude some references as "known missing". .. option:: -N Do not emit colored output. (On Windows, colored output is disabled in any case.) .. option:: -v Increase verbosity (loglevel). This option can be given up to three times to get more debug logging output. It implies :option:`-T`. .. versionadded:: 1.2 .. option:: -q Do not output anything on standard output, only write warnings and errors to standard error. .. option:: -Q Do not output anything on standard output, also suppress warnings. Only errors are written to standard error. .. option:: -w file Write warnings (and errors) to the given file, in addition to standard error. .. option:: -W Turn warnings into errors. This means that the build stops at the first warning and ``sphinx-build`` exits with exit status 1. .. option:: -T Display the full traceback when an unhandled exception occurs. Otherwise, only a summary is displayed and the traceback information is saved to a file for further analysis. .. versionadded:: 1.2 .. option:: -P (Useful for debugging only.) Run the Python debugger, :mod:`pdb`, if an unhandled exception occurs while building. .. option:: -h, --help, --version Display usage summary or Sphinx version. .. versionadded:: 1.2 You can also give one or more filenames on the command line after the source and build directories. Sphinx will then try to build only these output files (and their dependencies). Makefile options ---------------- The :file:`Makefile` and :file:`make.bat` files created by :program:`sphinx-quickstart` usually run :program:`sphinx-build` only with the :option:`-b` and :option:`-d` options. However, they support the following variables to customize behavior: .. describe:: PAPER The value for :confval:`latex_paper_size`. .. describe:: SPHINXBUILD The command to use instead of ``sphinx-build``. .. describe:: BUILDDIR The build directory to use instead of the one chosen in :program:`sphinx-quickstart`. .. describe:: SPHINXOPTS Additional options for :program:`sphinx-build`. .. _invocation-apidoc: Invocation of sphinx-apidoc =========================== The :program:`sphinx-apidoc` generates completely automatic API documentation for a Python package. It is called like this:: $ sphinx-apidoc [options] -o outputdir packagedir [pathnames] where *packagedir* is the path to the package to document, and *outputdir* is the directory where the generated sources are placed. Any *pathnames* given are paths to be excluded ignored during generation. .. warning:: ``sphinx-apidoc`` generates reST files that use :mod:`sphinx.ext.autodoc` to document all found modules. If any modules have side effects on import, these will be executed by ``autodoc`` when ``sphinx-build`` is run. If you document scripts (as opposed to library modules), make sure their main routine is protected by a ``if __name__ == '__main__'`` condition. The :program:`sphinx-apidoc` script has several options: .. program:: sphinx-apidoc .. option:: -o outputdir Gives the directory in which to place the generated output. .. option:: -f, --force Normally, sphinx-apidoc does not overwrite any files. Use this option to force the overwrite of all files that it generates. .. option:: -n, --dry-run With this option given, no files will be written at all. .. option:: -s suffix This option selects the file name suffix of output files. By default, this is ``rst``. .. option:: -d maxdepth This sets the maximum depth of the table of contents, if one is generated. .. option:: -l, --follow-links This option makes sphinx-apidoc follow symbolic links when recursing the filesystem to discover packages and modules. You may need it if you want to generate documentation from a source directory managed by `collective.recipe.omelette `_. By default, symbolic links are skipped. .. versionadded:: 1.2 .. option:: -T, --no-toc This prevents the generation of a table-of-contents file ``modules.rst``. This has no effect when :option:`--full` is given. .. option:: -F, --full This option makes sphinx-apidoc create a full Sphinx project, using the same mechanism as :program:`sphinx-quickstart`. Most configuration values are set to default values, but you can influence the most important ones using the following options. .. option:: -H project Sets the project name to put in generated files (see :confval:`project`). .. option:: -A author Sets the author name(s) to put in generated files (see :confval:`copyright`). .. option:: -V version Sets the project version to put in generated files (see :confval:`version`). .. option:: -R release Sets the project release to put in generated files (see :confval:`release`).