asciidoc(1)

Usage

asciidoc [OPTIONS] FILE

Overview

The asciidoc(1) command translates the AsciiDoc text file FILE to DocBook or HTML. If FILE is - then the standard input is used.

Options

-a, --attribute=ATTRIBUTE: Define or delete document attribute. ATTRIBUTE is formatted like NAME=VALUE. Command-line attributes take precedence over document and configuration file attributes. Alternate acceptable forms are NAME (the VALUE defaults to an empty string); NAME! (delete the NAME attribute); NAME=VALUE@ (do not override document or configuration file attributes). Values containing spaces should be enclosed in double-quote characters. This option may be specified more than once. A special attribute named trace controls the output of diagnostic information.

-b, --backend=BACKEND: Backend output file format: docbook45, docbook5, xhtml11, html4, html5, slidy, wordpress or latex (the latex backend is experimental). You can also use the backend alias names html (aliased to xhtml11) or docbook (aliased to docbook45). Defaults to html. The --backend option is also used to manage backend plugins (see PLUGIN COMMANDS).

-f, --conf-file=CONF_FILE: Use configuration file CONF_FILE.Configuration files processed in command-line order (after implicit configuration files). This option may be specified more than once.

--doctest: Run Python doctests in asciidoc module.

-d, --doctype=DOCTYPE: Document type: article, manpage or book. The book document type is only supported by the docbook backends. Default document type is article.

-c, --dump-conf: Dump configuration to stdout.

--filter=FILTER: Specify the name of a filter to be loaded (used to load filters that are not auto-loaded). This option may be specified more than once. The --filter option is also used to manage filter plugins (see PLUGIN COMMANDS).

-h, --help [TOPIC]: Print help TOPIC. --help topics will print a list of help topics, --help syntax summarizes AsciiDoc syntax, --help manpage prints the AsciiDoc manpage.

-e, --no-conf: Exclude implicitly loaded configuration files except for those named like the input file (infile.conf and infile-backend.conf).

-s, --no-header-footer: Suppress document header and footer output.

-o, --out-file=OUT_FILE: Write output to file OUT_FILE. Defaults to the base name of input file with backend extension. If the input is stdin then the outfile defaults to stdout. If OUT_FILE is - then the standard output is used.

-n, --section-numbers: Auto-number HTML article section titles. Synonym for --attribute numbered.

--safe: Enable safe mode. Safe mode is disabled by default. AsciiDoc safe mode skips potentially dangerous scripted sections in AsciiDoc source files.

--theme=THEME: Specify a theme name. Synonym for --attribute theme=THEME. The --theme option is also used to manage theme plugins (see PLUGIN COMMANDS).

-v, --verbose: Verbosely print processing information and configuration file checks to stderr.

--version: Print program version number.

Plugin commands

The asciidoc(1) --filter, --backend and --theme options are used to install, remove and list AsciiDoc filter, backend and theme plugins. Syntax:

asciidoc OPTION install ZIP_FILE [PLUGINS_DIR]
asciidoc OPTION remove PLUGIN_NAME [PLUGINS_DIR]
asciidoc OPTION list
asciidoc OPTION build ZIP_FILE PLUGIN_SOURCE

Where:

OPTION

asciidoc(1) --filter, --backend or --theme option specifying the type of plugin.

PLUGIN_NAME

A unique plugin name containing only alphanumeric or underscore characters.

ZIP_FILE

A Zip file containing plugin resources, the name must start with the plugin name e.g. my_filter-1.0.zip packages filter my_filter.

PLUGINS_DIR

The directory containing installed plugins. Each plugin is contained in its own separate subdirectory which has the same name as the plugin. PLUGINS_DIR defaults to the $HOME/.asciidoc/filters (for filter plugins) or $HOME/.asciidoc/backends (for backend plugins) or $HOME/.asciidoc/themes (for theme plugins).

PLUGIN_SOURCE

The name of a directory containing the plugin source files or the name of a single source file.

The plugin commands perform as follows:

install

Create a subdirectory in PLUGINS_DIR with the same name as the plugin then extract the ZIP_FILE into it.

remove

Delete the PLUGIN_NAME plugin subdirectory and all its contents from the PLUGINS_DIR.

list

List the names and locations of all installed filter or theme plugins (including standard plugins installed in the global configuration directory).

build

Create a plugin file named ZIP_FILE containing the files and subdirectories specified by PLUGIN_SOURCE. File and directory names starting with a period are skipped.

Environment

SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH

If the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is set to a UNIX timestamp, then the {docdate}, {doctime}, {localdate}, and {localtime} attributes are computed in the UTC time zone, with any timestamps newer than SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH replaced by SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH. (This helps software using AsciiDoc to build reproducibly.)

Examples

asciidoc asciidoc_file_name.txt

Simply generate an html file from the asciidoc_file_name.txt that is in current directory using asciidoc.

asciidoc -b html5 asciidoc_file_name.txt

Use the -b switch to use one of the proposed backend or another one you installed on your computer.

asciidoc -a data-uri -a icons -a toc -a max-width=55em article.txt

Use the -a switch to set attributes from command-line. AsciiDoc generated its stand-alone HTML user guide containing embedded CSS, JavaScript and images from the AsciiDoc article template with this command.

asciidoc -b html5 -d manpage asciidoc.1.txt

Generating the asciidoc manpage using the html5 backend.

Exit status

0

Success

1

Failure (syntax or usage error; configuration error; document processing failure; unexpected error).

Resources

GitHub: https://github.com/asciidoc/asciidoc-py3/

Main web site: https://asciidoc.org/

Copying

Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Releases

12 releases since Debian 3.1 (Sarge); the text changed 11 times.

3.1
4.0
5.0
6.0
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Arch

--attribute since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --backend since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --conf-file since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --doctest since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --doctype since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --dump-conf since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --filter since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --no-conf since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --no-header-footer since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --out-file since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --safe since Debian 6.0 (Squeeze); --section-numbers since Debian 4.0 (Etch); --theme since Debian 7 (Wheezy); --verbose since Debian 4.0 (Etch).

--unsafe until Debian 5.0 (Lenny).

Referred to by

a2x(1) A toolchain manager for AsciiDoc (converts Asciidoc text files to other file formats) t2html(1) Simple text to HTML converter. Relies on text indentation rules. testasciidoc(1) Run AsciiDoc conformance tests specified in configuration file.