a2x - A toolchain manager for AsciiDoc (converts Asciidoc text files to other file formats)
a2x [OPTIONS] SOURCE_FILE
A2X(1) A2X(1)
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 and manpage based output formats (chunked,
epub, htmlhelp, xhtml, manpage).
-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 to 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) (actually: the text-based browser defined by the LYNX
config variable) when generating text formatted output. Note that
this is the default behavior on Solaris.
-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 the --fop-opts 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"
o Options spanning multiple such comment lines will be concatenated.
o Zero or more white space characters can appear between the leading
// and a2x:.
o 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:
o Asciidoc: https://asciidoc.org/
o xsltproc: (all formats except text): http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/
o DocBook XSL Stylesheets (all formats except text):
https://github.com/docbook/xslt10-stylesheets
o dblatex (pdf, dvi, ps, tex formats):
http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/
o FOP (pdf format -- alternative PDF file generator):
http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/
o Lynx (text format -- alternative text file generator):
https://invisible-island.net/lynx/
o epubcheck (epub format -- EPUB file validator):
https://github.com/w3c/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).
LYNX = 'lynx' # text file generator.
XMLLINT = 'xmllint' # Set to '' to disable.
EPUBCHECK = 'epubcheck' # Set to '' to disable.
# External executable default options.
ASCIIDOC_OPTS = ''
BACKEND_OPTS = ''
DBLATEX_OPTS = ''
FOP_OPTS = ''
LYNX_OPTS = '-dump'
W3M_OPTS = '-dump -cols 70 -T text/html -no-graph'
XSLTPROC_OPTS = ''
Note, that it is possible to redefine W3M and LYNX to use different
text-based browsers, e.g. links: http://links.twibright.com/ or elinks:
http://elinks.or.cz/. LYNX_OPTS and W3M_OPTS can be used to pass
options to the selected browser. If these are defined they override the
respective defaults listed above (so don't forget to include the -dump
option in your definition: this is mandatory at least with w3m, lynx,
links, and elinks in order to send the formatted text to stdout).
BUGS
See the AsciiDoc distribution BUGS file.
AUTHOR
a2x was originally written by Stuart Rackham. Many people have
contributed to it.
RESOURCES
GitHub: https://github.com/asciidoc/asciidoc-py3/
Main web site: https://asciidoc.org/
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+---------------------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+---------------------------------------+
|Availability | developer/documentation-tool/asciidoc |
+---------------+---------------------------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+---------------------------------------+
SEE ALSO
asciidoc(1)
COPYING
Copyright (C) 2002-2013 Stuart Rackham.
Copyright (C) 2013-2020 AsciiDoc Contributors.
Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the MIT
license.
NOTES
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from https://github.com/asciidoc/asciidoc-
py3/releases/download/9.0.2/asciidoc-9.0.2.tar.gz.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at https://asciidoc.org/.
07/21/2020 A2X(1)