Module documentation

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Automodule example

This is the Docutils (Python Documentation Utilities) package.

Package Structure

Modules:

  • __init__.py: Contains component base classes, exception classes, and Docutils version information.

  • core.py: Contains the Publisher class and publish_*() convenience functions.

  • frontend.py: Runtime settings (command-line interface, configuration files) processing, for Docutils front-ends.

  • io.py: Provides a uniform API for low-level input and output.

  • nodes.py: Docutils document tree (doctree) node class library.

  • statemachine.py: A finite state machine specialized for regular-expression-based text filters.

Subpackages:

  • languages: Language-specific mappings of terms.

  • parsers: Syntax-specific input parser modules or packages.

  • readers: Context-specific input handlers which understand the data source and manage a parser.

  • transforms: Modules used by readers and writers to modify the Docutils document tree.

  • utils: Contains the Reporter system warning class and miscellaneous utilities used by readers, writers, and transforms.

    utils/urischemes.py: Contains a complete mapping of known URI addressing scheme names to descriptions.

  • utils/math: Contains functions for conversion of mathematical notation between different formats (LaTeX, MathML, text, …).

  • writers: Format-specific output translators.

exception docutils.ApplicationError[source]
class docutils.Component[source]

Base class for Docutils components.

component_type = None

Name of the component type (‘reader’, ‘parser’, ‘writer’). Override in subclasses.

supported = ()

Name and aliases for this component. Override in subclasses.

supports(format)[source]

Is format supported by this component?

To be used by transforms to ask the dependent component if it supports a certain input context or output format.

exception docutils.DataError[source]
class docutils.SettingsSpec[source]

Runtime setting specification base class.

SettingsSpec subclass objects used by docutils.frontend.OptionParser.

config_section = None

The name of the config file section specific to this component (lowercase, no brackets). Override in subclasses.

config_section_dependencies = None

A list of names of config file sections that are to be applied before config_section, in order (from general to specific). In other words, the settings in config_section are to be overlaid on top of the settings from these sections. The “general” section is assumed implicitly. Override in subclasses.

relative_path_settings = ()

Settings containing filesystem paths. Override in subclasses. Settings listed here are to be interpreted relative to the current working directory.

settings_default_overrides = None

A dictionary of auxiliary defaults, to override defaults for settings defined in other components’ setting_specs. Override in subclasses.

settings_defaults = None

A dictionary of defaults for settings not in settings_spec (internal settings, intended to be inaccessible by command-line and config file). Override in subclasses.

settings_spec = ()

Runtime settings specification. Override in subclasses.

Defines runtime settings and associated command-line options, as used by docutils.frontend.OptionParser. This is a tuple of:

  • Option group title (string or None which implies no group, just a list of single options).

  • Description (string or None).

  • A sequence of option tuples. Each consists of:

    • Help text (string)

    • List of option strings (e.g. ['-Q', '--quux']).

    • Dictionary of keyword arguments sent to the OptionParser/OptionGroup add_option method.

      Runtime setting names are derived implicitly from long option names (’–a-setting’ becomes settings.a_setting) or explicitly from the ‘dest’ keyword argument.

      Most settings will also have a ‘validator’ keyword & function. The validator function validates setting values (from configuration files and command-line option arguments) and converts them to appropriate types. For example, the docutils.frontend.validate_boolean function, required by all boolean settings, converts true values (‘1’, ‘on’, ‘yes’, and ‘true’) to 1 and false values (‘0’, ‘off’, ‘no’, ‘false’, and ‘’) to 0. Validators need only be set once per setting. See the docutils.frontend.validate_* functions.

      See the optparse docs for more details.

  • More triples of group title, description, options, as many times as needed. Thus, settings_spec tuples can be simply concatenated.

class docutils.TransformSpec[source]

Runtime transform specification base class.

TransformSpec subclass objects used by docutils.transforms.Transformer.

get_transforms()[source]

Transforms required by this class. Override in subclasses.

unknown_reference_resolvers = ()

List of functions to try to resolve unknown references. Unknown references have a ‘refname’ attribute which doesn’t correspond to any target in the document. Called when the transforms in docutils.transforms.references are unable to find a correct target. The list should contain functions which will try to resolve unknown references, with the following signature:

default
def reference_resolver(node):
    '''Returns boolean: true if resolved, false if not.'''

If the function is able to resolve the reference, it should also remove the ‘refname’ attribute and mark the node as resolved:

default
del node['refname']
node.resolved = 1

Each function must have a “priority” attribute which will affect the order the unknown_reference_resolvers are run:

default
reference_resolver.priority = 100

Override in subclasses.

class docutils.VersionInfo(major=0, minor=0, micro=0, releaselevel='final', serial=0, release=True)[source]

Autoclass example

class docutils.nodes.Node[source]

Abstract base class of nodes in a document tree.

walk(visitor)[source]

Traverse a tree of Node objects, calling the dispatch_visit() method of visitor when entering each node. (The walkabout() method is similar, except it also calls the dispatch_departure() method before exiting each node.)

This tree traversal supports limited in-place tree modifications. Replacing one node with one or more nodes is OK, as is removing an element. However, if the node removed or replaced occurs after the current node, the old node will still be traversed, and any new nodes will not.

Within visit methods (and depart methods for walkabout()), TreePruningException subclasses may be raised (SkipChildren, SkipSiblings, SkipNode, SkipDeparture).

Parameter visitor: A NodeVisitor object, containing a visit implementation for each Node subclass encountered.

Return true if we should stop the traversal.

Autofunction example

docutils.nodes.serial_escape(value)[source]

Escape string values that are elements of a list, for serialization.

Command line options

If you want to document command-line options, you have two choices:

  • The option directive (Sphinx)

  • An option list (docutils)

Option directive

Sphinx comes with the option directive. This renders every option into its own element, including permalinks:

-h, --help

Display a (hopefully) useful message.

-i FILE, --input FILE

Specify an input file.

-v, --verbose

Increase the verbosity.

Option lists

A compact way to display command-line options is built into the docutils module and works in Sphinx too:

-h, --help

Display a helpful message.

-i FILE, --input FILE

Specify an input file.

-v, --verbose

Increase the verbosity.