Table of Contents
AsciiDoc is a text document format for writing short documents, articles, books and UNIX man pages. AsciiDoc files can be translated to HTML and DocBook markups using the asciidoc(1) command. AsciiDoc is highly configurable: both the AsciiDoc source file syntax and the backend output markups (which can be almost any type of SGML/XML markup) can be customized and extended by the user.
Plain text is the most universal electronic document format, no matter what computing environment you use, you can always read and write plain text documentation. But for many applications plain text is not a viable presentation format. HTML, PDF and roff (roff is used for man pages) are the most widely used Unix presentation formats. DocBook is a popular Unix documentation markup format which can be translated to HTML, PDF and other presentation formats.
AsciiDoc is a plain text human readable/writable document format that can be translated to DocBook or HTML using the asciidoc(1) command. You can then either use asciidoc(1) generated HTML directly or run asciidoc(1) DocBook output through your favorite DocBook toolchain to produce PDF, HTML, RTF and other presentation formats.
The AsciiDoc format is a useful presentation format in it's own right: AsciiDoc files are unencumbered by markup and is easily viewed, proofed and edited.
AsciiDoc is light weight: it consists of a single Python script and a bunch of configuration files. Apart from asciidoc(1) and a Python interpreter, no other programs are required to convert AsciiDoc text files to DocBook or HTML. See Example AsciiDoc Documents below.
You write an AsciiDoc document the same way you would write a normal text document, there are no markup tags or weird notations. Built-in AsciiDoc formatting rules have been kept to a minimum and are fairly obvious.
Text markup conventions tend to be a matter of (often strong) personal preference: if the default syntax is not to your liking you can define your own by editing the text based asciidoc(1) configuration files. You can create other backend formats to translate AsciiDoc documents to almost any SGML/XML markup.
asciidoc(1) comes with a set of configuration files to translate AsciiDoc files to HTML or DocBook (articles, books or man pages).
AsciiDoc is written in Python so you need a Python interpreter (version 2.3 or later) to execute asciidoc(1). Python is installed by the default configurations of most FreeBSD and Linux distributions. You can download Python from the official Python website http://www.python.org.
Extract the distribution tarball:
$ tar -xzf asciidoc-7.0.0.tar.gz
The tarball contains the executable asciidoc.py script, configuration files, examples and documentation.
Test out asciidoc by changing to the AsciiDoc application directory and converting the User Guide document (./doc/asciidoc.txt) to HTML (./doc/asciidoc.html):
$ ./asciidoc.py -b html4 doc/asciidoc.txt # Plain HTML $ ./asciidoc.py -b xhtml11 doc/asciidoc.txt # XHTML with CSS
By convention .txt file extensions are used for AsciiDoc document files.
The best way to quickly get a feel for AsciiDoc is to view the AsciiDoc web site and/or distributed examples:
The asciidoc(1) command translates an AsciiDoc formatted file to the backend format specified by the -b command-line option. asciidoc(1) itself has little intrinsic knowledge of backend formats, all translation rules are contained in customizable cascading configuration files.
AsciiDoc ships with the following predefined backend output formats:
AsciiDoc generates DocBook article, book and refentry documents (corresponding to the asciidoc(1) article, book and manpage document types).
By default the docbook backend produces DocBook XML. You can produce DocBook SGML using the -a sgml command-line option.
The AsciiDoc Preamble element is output as a DocBook book Preface when processed as a book document type.
The asciidoc(1) -b xhtml11 command-line option produces XHTML 1.1 styled with CSS2. By default a stand-alone document is generated (contains embedded CSS and no linked admonition icon images).
xhtml11 document generation is affected by the following attributes:
AsciiDoc XHTML output is styled using CSS2 stylesheets from the distribution ./stylesheets/ directory.
![]() | Important |
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Browser CSS support varies from browser to browser. The examples work well on IE6, Firefox 1.0 and up, Mozilla 1.7 and up, Opera 8 and Konqueror 3.4 but have not been tested on other browsers. All browsers have CSS quirks, but Microsoft's IE6 has so many omissions and errors that in order to separate clean CSS from the IE6 workarounds a separate xhtml11-quirks.css stylesheet is used. If you're not viewing your documents with IE6 then the quirks stylesheet can be omitted using the -a quirks! command-line option. |
Default xhtml11 stylesheets:
Use the theme attribute to select and alternative set of stylesheets. For example, the command-line option -a theme=foo will use stylesheets foo.css, foo-manpage.css and foo-quirks.css.
![]() | Warning |
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The AsciiDoc linuxdoc backend is still distributed but is no longer being actively developed or tested with new AsciiDoc releases (the last supported release was AsciiDoc 6.0.3). |
The LinuxDoc DTD restricts the allowable AsciiDoc syntax:
DocBook documents are not designed to be viewed directly. FreeBSD and most Linux distributions come with conversion tools (collectively called a tool chain) for converting DocBook files to presentation formats such as Postscript, HTML, PDF, DVI, roff (the native man page format), HTMLHelp, JavaHelp and text.
One of the most common toolchain wrappers is xmlto(1) which is runs under FreeBSD, Linux and Windows (under Cygwin).
The default xmlto(1) outputs are quite plain (compared to the distributed AsciiDoc HTML and PDF documentation files). The Processing DocBook Files section explains how you can generate nicely styled output using custom DocBook XSL Stylesheets drivers. This is the best route for generating PDF outputs.
![]() | Warning |
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I don't recommend using xmlto(1) for producing PDF — the output is not bookmarked and callouts generate LaTeX errors. |
To convert the asciidoc.1.txt AsciiDoc manpage document to native man page groff(1) man macro package format:
$ asciidoc -d manpage -b docbook asciidoc.1.txt $ xmlto man asciidoc.1.xml
To view the man page file as it would be displayed by the man(1) command:
$ groff -mandoc -Tascii asciidoc.1 | less
To print a high quality man page to a postscript printer:
$ groff -mandoc -Tps asciidoc.1 | lpr
You can also produce HTML from DocBook files:
$ asciidoc -b docbook asciidoc.txt $ xmlto html-nochunks asciidoc.xml # Single HTML file. $ xmlto html -o chunked asciidoc.xml # Chunked HTML file.
![]() | Warning |
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The LinuxDoc backend has limitations and is no longer actively supported. |
LinuxDoc is an SGML documentation markup language originally created by Matt Welsh to write Linux documentation. LinuxDoc does a good job of marking up small and medium sized text based documents. Its strength is its simplicity and ease of use. Nowadays LinuxDoc has been largely superseded by DocBook.
There are a number of Open Source applications available to convert the LinuxDoc SGML markup to various presentation formats, here are a couple of examples:
Create a single HTML file with a detailed table of contents using the linuxdoc(1) command that comes with the Linuxdoc-Tools package.
$ linuxdoc -B html -s 0 -T 2 mydocument.sgml
Generate a set of linked HTML files using the sgmlfmt(1) from the FreeBSD sgmlformat package:
$ sgmlfmt -f html mydocument.sgml
Create a PDF file using the sgmlfmt(1) from the FreeBSD sgmlformat package:
$ sgmlfmt -f ps mydocument.sgml $ ps2pdf asciidoc.ps
AsciiDoc does not have a text backend (for most applications AsciiDoc source text is fine), however you can convert asciidoc(1) generated HTML and DocBook files to text.
You can use the lynx(1) web browser to convert AsciiDoc generated HTML to text. You'll find an asciidoc2text.sh shell script included in the AsciiDoc distribution examples/asciidoc2text directory which, together with the asciidoc2text.conf configuration file, automates text file generation with a single command. For example:
$ ./examples/asciidoc2text/asciidoc2text.sh test.txt >test.text
You can also use the xmlto(1) toolchain commands to convert DocBook to text.
![]() | Warning |
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By default xmlto(1) creates files with a .txt extension when generating text files. This will overwrite your AsciiDoc *.txt source files (use the -o command-line option to output to an alternative directory). |
There are three types of AsciiDoc documents: article, book and manpage. All document types share the same AsciiDoc format with some minor variations.
Use the asciidoc(1) -d option to specify the AsciiDoc document type — defaults to article type.
Used for short documents, articles and general documentation. See the AsciiDoc distribution ./doc/article.txt example.
Books share the same format as articles; in addition there is the option to add level 0 sections to divide a book into multiple parts.
Book documents will normally be used to produce DocBook output since DocBook processors can automatically generate footnotes, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, list of examples and indexes.
AsciiDoc markup supports standard DocBook frontmatter and backmatter special sections (dedication, preface, bibliography, glossary, index, colophon) plus footnotes and index entries.
Example book documents
Used to generate UNIX manual pages. AsciiDoc manpage documents observe special header title and section naming conventions — see the Manpage Documents section for details.
See also the asciidoc(1) man page source (./doc/asciidoc.1.txt) from the AsciiDoc distribution.
An AsciiDoc document consists of a series of block elements starting with an optional document Header, followed by an optional Preamble, followed by zero or more document Sections.
Almost any combination of zero or more elements constitutes a valid AsciiDoc document: documents can range from a single sentence to a multi-part book.
Block elements consist of one or more lines of text and may contain other block elements.
The AsciiDoc block structure can be informally summarized [1] as follows:
Document ::= (Header?,Preamble?,Section*) Header ::= (Title,(AuthorLine,RevisionLine?)?) AuthorLine ::= (FirstName,(MiddleName?,LastName)?,EmailAddress?) RevisionLine ::= (Revision?,Date) Preamble ::= (SectionBody) Section ::= (Title,SectionBody?,(Section)*) SectionBody ::= ((BlockTitle?,Block)|BlockMacro)+ Block ::= (Paragraph|DelimitedBlock|List|Table) List ::= (BulletedList|NumberedList|LabeledList|CalloutList) BulletedList ::= (ListItem)+ NumberedList ::= (ListItem)+ CalloutList ::= (ListItem)+ LabeledList ::= (ItemLabel+,ListItem)+ ListItem ::= (ItemText,(List|ListParagraph|ListContinuation)*) Table ::= (Ruler,TableHeader?,TableBody,TableFooter?) TableHeader ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline) TableFooter ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline) TableBody ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline) TableRow ::= (TableData+)
The Header is optional but and starts on first line of the document beginning with a document title. Immediately following the title are optional Author and Revision lines.
The author line contains the author's name optionally followed by the author's email address. The author's name consists of a first name followed by optional middle and last names separated by white space. The email address is last and must be enclosed in angle <> brackets. Author names cannot contain angle <> bracket characters.
The optional document header revision line should immediately follow the author line. The revision line can be one of two formats:
A an alphanumeric document revision number followed by a date:
The document heading is separated from the remainder of the document by one or more blank lines.
Here's an example AsciiDoc document header:
Writing Documentation using AsciiDoc ==================================== Stuart Rackham <srackham@methods.co.nz> v2.0, February 2003
You can override or set header parameters by passing revision, data, email, author, authorinitials, firstname and lastname attributes using the asciidoc(1) -a command-line option. For example:
$ asciidoc -b docbook -a date=2004/07/27 article.txt
Attributes can also be added to the header for substitution in the header template with Attribute Entry elements.
The Preamble is an optional untitled section body between the document Header and the first Section title. The Preamble should only be included in article documents.
AsciiDoc supports five section levels which corresponding to document levels 0 to 4 (although only book documents are allowed to contain level 0 sections). Section levels are delineated by the section title underlines.
A section consists of a section title followed by an optional section body.
Sections are translated using configuration file markup templates. To determine which configuration file section to use AsciiDoc first searches for section titles in the [specialsections] configuration entries, if not found it looks for the name [sect<level>].
You can the -n command-line option to auto-number HTML outputs (DocBook line numbering is handled automatically by the DocBook toolchain commands).
In addition to content sections, documents can contain optional frontmatter and backmatter sections — for example: preface, bibliography, table of contents, index.
AsciiDoc configuration files can have a [specialsections] section that specifies special section titles and the corresponding backend markup.
[specialsections] entries are formatted like:
<pattern>=<name>
<pattern> is a Python regular expression and <name> is the name of a configuration file markup template section. If the <pattern> matches an AsciiDoc document section title then the backend output is marked up using the <name> markup template (instead of the default section template). The {title} attribute value is set to the value of the matched regular expression group named title, if there is no title group {title} is set to the the whole of the section title.
The default special section names are:
Preface (book documents only) Abstract (article documents only) Dedication (book documents only) Glossary Bibliography|References Colophon (book documents only) Index Appendix [A-Z][:.] <title>
Inline document elements are used to markup character formatting and various types of text substitution. Inline elements and inline element syntax is defined in the asciidoc(1) configuration files.
Here is a list of AsciiDoc inline elements in the (default) order in which they are processed:
The AsciiDoc source document is read and processed as follows:
When a block element is encountered asciidoc(1) determines the type of block by checking in the following order (first to last): BlockTitles, (section) Titles, BlockMacros, Lists, DelimitedBlocks, Tables, AttributeEntrys, AttributeLists, Paragraphs.
The default paragraph definition [paradef-default] is last element to be checked.
Knowing the parsing order will help you devise unambiguous macro, list and block syntax rules.
Inline substitutions within block elements are performed in the following default order:
The substitutions and substitution order performed on Title, Paragraph and DelimitedBlock elements is determined by configuration file parameters.
Words and phrases can be formatted by enclosing inline text with predefined quoting characters:
Quoting characters can be changed and new quoting markup syntax defined by editing asciidoc(1) configuration files. See the Configuration Files section for details.
Quoted text properties
Put carets on either side of the text to be superscripted, put tildes on either side of text to be subscripted. For example, the following line:
e^{amp}#960;i^+1 = 0. H~2~O and x^10^. Some ^super text^ and ~some sub text~
Is rendered like:
eπi+1 = 0. H2O and x10. Some super text and some sub text
If you want to display caret (^) or tilde (~) characters you need to ensure only one per line otherwise they'll be misinterpreted as superscripting and subscripting.
Superscripts and subscripts are implemented as Replacements substitutions.
A plus character preceded by at least one space character at the end of a line forces a line break. It generates an HTML line break (<br />) tag. Line breaks are ignored when outputting to DocBook since it has no line break element.
A line of three or more apostrophe characters will generate an HTML ruler (<hr />) tag. Ignored when generating non-HTML output formats.
By default tab characters input files will translated to 8 spaces. Tab expansion is set with the tabsize entry in the configuration file [miscellaneous] section and can be overridden in the include block macro by setting a tabsize attribute in the macro's attribute list. For example:
include::addendum.txt[tabsize=2]
The tab size can also be set using the attribute -a command-line option, for example -a tabsize=4
The following replacements are defined in the default AsciiDoc configuration:
(C) copyright, (TM) trademark, (R) registered trademark, -- em dash, ... ellipsis.
Is rendered as:
© copyright, ™ trademark, ® registered trademark, — em dash, … ellipsis.
The Configuration Files section explains how to configure your own replacements.
Words defined in [specialwords] configuration file sections are automatically marked up without having to be explicitly notated.
The Configuration Files section explains how to add and replace special words.
Document and section titles consist of one or two lines.
A two line title consists of a title line, starting hard against the left margin, and an underline. Section underlines consist a repeated character pairs spanning the width of the preceding title (give or take up to three characters):
The default title underlines for each of the document levels are:
Level 0 (top level): ====================== Level 1: ---------------------- Level 2: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Level 3: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Level 4 (bottom level): ++++++++++++++++++++++
Examples:
Level One Section Title -----------------------
Level 2 Subsection Title ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One line titles consist of a line starting with one or more equals characters (the exact number specified the section level) followed by a space followed by the section title. Here are some examples:
= Document Title == Section level 1 title (top level section) === Section level 2 title ==== Section level 3 title ===== Section level 4 title
The syntax can be changed by editing the configuration file [titles] section sect0…sect4 entries.
A BlockTitle element is a single line beginning with a period followed by a title. The title is applied to the next Paragraph, DelimitedBlock, List, Table or BlockMacro. For example:
.Notes - Note 1. - Note 2.
is rendered as:
Notes
A BlockId is a single line block element containing a unique identifier enclosed in double square brackets. It is used to assign an identifier to the ensuing block element for use by referring links. For example:
[[chapter-titles]] Chapter titles can be ...
The preceding example identifies the following paragraph so it can be linked from other location, for example with <<chapter-titles,chapter titles>>.
BlockId elements can be applied to Title, Paragraph, List, DelimitedBlock and BlockMacro elements. The BlockId element is really just an AttributeList with a special syntax which sets the {id} attribute for substitution in the subsequent block's markup template.
Paragraphs are terminated by a blank line, the end of file, or the start of a DelimitedBlock.
Paragraph types are defined in configuration file [paradef*] sections. AsciiDoc ships with the following predefined paragraph types:
A Default paragraph ([paradef-default]) consists of one or more non-blank lines of text. The first line must start hard against the left margin (no intervening white space). The processing expectation of the default paragraph type is that of a normal paragraph of text.
The verse paragraph style is useful for lyrics and poems. For example:
[verse] Consul *necessitatibus* per id, consetetur, eu pro everti postulant homero verear ea mea, qui.
Renders:
Consul necessitatibus per id,
consetetur, eu pro everti postulant
homero verear ea mea, qui.
An Literal paragraph ([paradef-literal]) consists of one or more lines of text, where the first line is indented by one or more or space or tab characters. Literal paragraphs are rendered verbatim in a monospaced font usually without any distinguishing background or border. There is no text formatting or substitutions within Literal paragraphs apart from Special Characters and Callouts. For example:
Consul *necessitatibus* per id, consetetur, eu pro everti postulant homero verear ea mea, qui.
Renders:
Consul *necessitatibus* per id, consetetur, eu pro everti postulant homero verear ea mea, qui.
Tip, Note, Important, Warning and Caution paragraph definitions support the corresponding DocBook admonishment elements, just write a normal paragraph but place NOTE:, TIP:, IMPORTANT:, WARNING: or CAUTION: as the first word of the paragraph. For example:
NOTE: This is an example note.
or the alternative syntax:
[NOTE] This is an example note.
Renders:
![]() | Note |
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This is an example note. |
![]() | Tip |
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If your admonition is more than a single paragraph use an admonition block instead. |
Delimited blocks are blocks of text enveloped by leading and trailing delimiter lines (normally a series of four or more repeated characters). The behavior of Delimited Blocks is specified by entries in configuration file [blockdef*] sections.
AsciiDoc ships with a number of predefined DelimitedBlocks (see the asciidoc.conf configuration file in the asciidoc(1) program directory):
Predefined delimited block underlines:
CommentBlock: ////////////////////////// BackendBlock: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ListingBlock: -------------------------- LiteralBlock: .......................... SidebarBlock: ************************** QuoteBlock: __________________________
ListingBlocks are rendered verbatim in a monospaced font, they retain line and whitespace formatting and often distinguished by a background or border. There is no text formatting or substitutions within Listing blocks apart from Special Characters and Callouts. Listing blocks are often used for code and file listings.
Here's an example:
-------------------------------------- #include <stdio.h>
int main() { printf("Hello World!\n"); exit(0); } --------------------------------------
Which will be rendered like:
#include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("Hello World!\n"); exit(0); }
LiteralBlocks behave just like LiteralParagraphs except you don't have to indent the contents.
LiteralBlocks can be used to resolve list ambiguity. If the following list was indented it would be processed as an ordered list (not an indented paragraph):
.................... 1. Item 1 2. Item 2 ....................
Renders:
1. Item 1 2. Item 2
The literal block defines a verse style (useful for lyrics and poems). For example:
[verse] ...................................... Consul *necessitatibus* per id, consetetur, eu pro everti postulant homero verear ea mea, qui. Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne *magna primis adolescens*. ......................................
Renders:
Consul necessitatibus per id,
consetetur, eu pro everti postulant
homero verear ea mea, qui.
Qui in magna commodo, est labitur
dolorum an. Est ne magna primis
adolescens.
A sidebar is a short piece of text presented outside the narrative flow of the main text. The sidebar is normally presented inside a bordered box to set it apart from the main text.
The sidebar body is treated like a normal section body.
Here's an example:
.An Example Sidebar ************************************************ Any AsciiDoc SectionBody element (apart from SidebarBlocks) can be placed inside a sidebar. ************************************************
Which will be rendered like:
CommentBlocks are not processed; they are useful for annotations and for excluding new or outdated content that you don't want displayed. Here's and example:
////////////////////////////////////////// CommentBlock contents are not processed by asciidoc(1). //////////////////////////////////////////
See also Comment Lines.
BackendBlocks are for backend specific markup, text is only subject to attribute and macro substitution. BackendBlock content will generally be backend specific. Here's an example:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <table border="1"><tr> <td>Cell 1</td> <td>Cell 2</td> </tr></table> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
QuoteBlocks are used for quoted passages of text. attribution and citetitle named attributes specify the author and source of the quote (they are equivalent to positional attribute list entries 1 and 2 respectively). Both attributes are optional and the block body is treated like a SectionBody. For example:
[Bertrand Russell, The World of Mathematics (1956)] ____________________________________________________________________ A good notation has subtlety and suggestiveness which at times makes it almost seem like a live teacher. ____________________________________________________________________
Which is rendered as:
A good notation has subtlety and suggestiveness which at times makes it almost seem like a live teacher. | ||
-- Bertrand Russell The World of Mathematics (1956) |
In this example unquoted positional attributes have been used, the following quoted positional and named attributes are equivalent (if the attribute list contained commas then quoting would have been mandatory):
["Bertrand Russell","The World of Mathematics (1956)"] [attribution="Bertrand Russell",citetitle="The World of Mathematics (1956)"]
ExampleBlocks encapsulate the DocBook Example element and are used for examples. DocBook processors automatically number examples and generate a list of examples backmatter section.
Example blocks are delimited by lines of equals characters and you can put any block elements apart from Titles, BlockTitles and Sidebars) inside an example block.
The ExampleBlock definition includes a set of admonition styles (NOTE, TIP, IMPORTANT, WARNING, CAUTION) for generating admonition blocks (admonitions requiring more than just a simple admonition paragraph). Just precede the ExampleBlock with and attribute list containing the admonition style name. Example:
[NOTE] .A NOTE block ===================================================================== Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. . Fusce euismod commodo velit. . Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. .. Fusce euismod commodo velit. .. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. . Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. =====================================================================
Renders:
![]() | A NOTE block |
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Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens.
|
List types
List behavior
Bulleted list items start with a dash followed by a space or tab character. Bulleted list syntaxes are:
- List item. * List item.
Numbered list items start with an optional number or letter followed by a period followed by a space or tab character. List numbering is optional. Numbered list syntaxes are:
. Integer numbered list item. 1. Integer numbered list item with optional numbering. .. Lowercase letter numbered list item. a. Lowercase letter numbered list item with optional numbering.
Here are some examples:
- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. * Fusce euismod commodo velit. * Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. Sit munere ponderum dignissim et. Minim luptatum et vel. * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. - Nulla porttitor vulputate libero. . Fusce euismod commodo velit. . Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. .. Fusce euismod commodo velit. .. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. . Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. - Praesent eget purus quis magna eleifend eleifend. 1. Fusce euismod commodo velit. a. Fusce euismod commodo velit. b. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. c. Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. 2. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. 3. Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. 4. Nam fermentum mattis ante.
Which render as:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Nulla porttitor vulputate libero.
Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
Praesent eget purus quis magna eleifend eleifend.
Fusce euismod commodo velit.
Labeled list items consist of one or more text labels followed the text of the list item.
An item label begins a line with an alphanumeric character hard against the left margin and ends with a double colon :: or semi-colon ;;.
The list item text consists of one or more lines of text starting on the line immediately following the label and can be followed by nested List or ListParagraph elements. Item text can be optionally indented.
Here are some examples:
Lorem:: Fusce euismod commodo velit. Fusce euismod commodo velit. Ipsum:: Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. Dolor:: Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. 'Suspendisse';; A massa id sem aliquam auctor. 'Morbi';; Pretium nulla vel lorem. 'In';; Dictum mauris in urna.
Which render as:
Fusce euismod commodo velit.
Fusce euismod commodo velit.
Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
Horizontal labeled lists differ from vertical labeled lists in that the label and the list item sit side-by-side as opposed to the item under the label. Item text must begin on the same line as the label. For example:
![]() | Tip |
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Used vertical labeled lists in preference to horizontal labeled lists — current PDF rendering tools do not make a good job of determining the relative column widths. |
Here are some examples:
*Lorem*:: Fusce euismod commodo velit. Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. Fusce euismod commodo velit. *Ipsum*:: Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus. * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. *Dolor*:: Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. Sit munere ponderum dignissim et. Minim luptatum et vel. 'Suspendisse';; A massa id sem aliquam auctor. 'Morbi';; Pretium nulla vel lorem. 'In';; Dictum mauris in urna.
Which render as:
Lorem |
Fusce euismod commodo velit. Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis adolescens. Fusce euismod commodo velit. | ||||||
Ipsum |
Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
| ||||||
Dolor |
Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis. Sit munere ponderum dignissim et. Minim luptatum et vel.
|
AsciiDoc comes pre-configured with a labeled list (?? label delimiter) for generating DocBook question and answer (Q&A) lists. Example:
Question one?? Answer one. Question two?? Answer two.
AsciiDoc comes pre-configured with a labeled list (:- label delimiter) for generating DocBook glossary lists. Example:
A glossary term:- The corresponding definition. A second glossary term:- The corresponding definition.
For working examples see the article.txt and book.txt documents in the AsciiDoc ./doc distribution directory.
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Glossary lists must be located in a glossary section to generate valid DocBook output. |
AsciiDoc comes with a predefined itemized list (+ item bullet) for generating bibliography entries. Example:
+ [[[taoup]]] Eric Steven Raymond. 'The Art of Unix Programming'. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-13-142901-9. + [[[walsh-muellner]]] Norman Walsh & Leonard Muellner. 'DocBook - The Definitive Guide'. O'Reilly & Associates. 1999. ISBN 1-56592-580-7.
The [[[<reference>]]] syntax is a bibliography entry anchor, it generates an anchor named <reference> and additionally displays [<reference>] at the anchor position. For example [[[taoup]]] generates an anchor named taoup that displays [taoup] at the anchor position. Cite the reference from elsewhere your document using <<taoup>>, this displays a hyperlink ([taoup]) to the corresponding bibliography entry anchor.
For working examples see the article.txt and book.txt documents in the AsciiDoc ./doc distribution directory.
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Bibliography lists must be located in a bibliography section to generate valid DocBook output. |
To include subsequent block elements in list items (in addition to implicitly included nested lists and Literal paragraphs) place a separator line containing a single plus character between the list item and the ensuing list continuation element. Multiple block elements (excluding section Titles and BlockTitles) may be included in a list item using this technique. For example:
Here's an example of list item continuation:
1. List item one. + List item one continued with a second paragraph followed by an Indented block. + ................. $ ls *.sh $ mv *.sh ~/tmp ................. + List item one continued with a third paragraph. 2. List item two. List item two literal paragraph (no continuation required). - Nested list (item one). Nested list literal paragraph (no continuation required). + Nested list appended list item one paragraph - Nested list item two.
Renders:
List item one.
List item one continued with a second paragraph followed by a Listing block.
$ ls *.sh $ mv *.sh ~/tmp
List item one continued with a third paragraph.
List item two.
List item two literal paragraph (no continuation required).
Nested list (item one).
Nested list literal paragraph (no continuation required).
Nested list appended list item one paragraph
A List block is a special delimited block containing a list element.
The List Block is useful for:
Here's an example of a nested list block:
.Nested List Block 1. List item one. + This paragraph is part of the preceding list item + -- a. This list is nested and does not require explicit item continuation. This paragraph is part of the preceding list item b. List item b. This paragraph belongs to list item b. -- + This paragraph belongs to item 1. 2. Item 2 of the outer list.
Renders:
Nested List Block
List item one.
This paragraph is part of the preceding list item
This list is nested and does not require explicit item continuation.
This paragraph is part of the preceding list item
List item b.
This paragraph belongs to list item b.
This paragraph belongs to item 1.
The shipped AsciiDoc configuration includes the footnote:[<text>] inline macro for generating footnotes. The footnote text can span multiple lines. Example footnote:
footnote:[An example footnote.]
Which renders:
[2]
Footnotes are primarily useful when generating DocBook output — DocBook conversion programs render footnote outside the primary text flow.
The shipped AsciiDoc configuration includes the inline macros for generating index entries.
Here are some index entry examples taken from the example article.txt and book.txt documents in the AsciiDoc ./doc distribution directory.
And now for something completely different: +monkeys+, lions and tigers (Bengal and Siberian) using the alternative syntax index entries. ++Big cats,Lions++ ++Big cats,Tigers,Bengal Tiger++ ++Big cats,Tigers,Siberian Tiger++ Secondary and tertiary terms generate separate index entries.
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Index entries only really make sense if you are generating DocBook markup — DocBook conversion programs automatically generate an index at the point an Index section appears in source document (see the book.txt example document in the distribution ./doc directory). |
Callouts are a mechanism for annotating verbatim text (source code, computer output and user input for example). Callout markers are placed inside the annotated text while the actual annotations are presented in a callout list after the annotated text. Here's an example:
.MS-DOS directory listing ..................................................... 10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> bin 10/16/97 14:11 <DIR> DOS <1> 10/16/97 14:40 <DIR> Program Files 10/16/97 14:46 <DIR> TEMP 10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> tmp 10/16/97 14:37 <DIR> WINNT 10/16/97 14:25 119 AUTOEXEC.BAT <2> 2/13/94 6:21 54,619 COMMAND.COM <2> 10/16/97 14:25 115 CONFIG.SYS <2> 11/16/97 17:17 61,865,984 pagefile.sys 2/13/94 6:21 9,349 WINA20.386 <3> ..................................................... <1> This directory holds MS-DOS. <2> System startup code for DOS. <3> Some sort of Windows 3.1 hack.
Which renders:
Example 1. MS-DOS directory listing
10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> bin 10/16/97 14:11 <DIR> DOS10/16/97 14:40 <DIR> Program Files 10/16/97 14:46 <DIR> TEMP 10/17/97 9:04 <DIR> tmp 10/16/97 14:37 <DIR> WINNT 10/16/97 14:25 119 AUTOEXEC.BAT
2/13/94 6:21 54,619 COMMAND.COM
10/16/97 14:25 115 CONFIG.SYS
11/16/97 17:17 61,865,984 pagefile.sys 2/13/94 6:21 9,349 WINA20.386
Explanation
Callout marks are generated by the callout inline macro while callout lists are generated using the callout list definition. The callout macro and callout list are special in that they work together. The callout inline macro is not enabled by the normal macros substitutions option, instead it has it's own callouts substitution option.
The following attributes are available during inline callout macro substitution:
The {coids} attribute can be used during callout list item substitution — it is a space delimited list of callout IDs that refer to the explanatory list item.
Macros are a mechanism for substituting parameterized text into output documents.
Macros have a name, a single target argument and an attribute list. The default syntax is <name>:<target>[<attributelist>] for inline macros and <name>::<target>[<attributelist>] for block macros. Here are some examples:
http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/index.html[Asciidoc home page] include::chapt1.txt[tabsize=2] mailto:srackham@methods.co.nz[]
Macro behavior
Inline Macros occur in an inline element context. Predefined Inline macros include URL, image and link macros.
Standard http, https, ftp, file and mailto URLs are rendered using predefined inline macros.
The default AsciiDoc inline macro syntax is very similar to a URL: all you need to do is append an attribute list containing an optional caption immediately following the URL. If no text is inside the list the URL itself supplies the displayed text.
Here are some examples:
http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/[The AsciiDoc home page] mailto:joe.bloggs@foobar.com[email Joe Bloggs] mailto:joe.bloggs@foobar.com[]
Which are rendered:
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If the <target> has space characters they should be replaced by %20. For example large%20image.png. |
Two AsciiDoc inline macros are provided for creating hypertext links within an AsciiDoc document. You can use either the standard macro syntax or the (preferred) alternative.
Used to specify hypertext link targets:
[[<id>,<xreflabel>]] anchor:<id>[<xreflabel>]
The <id> is a unique identifier that must begin with a letter. The optional <xreflabel> is the text to be displayed by xref macros with no captions that refer to this anchor. The <xreflabel> is only really useful when generating DocBook output. Example:
[[X1]]
You may have noticed that the syntax of this inline element is the same as that of the BlockId block element, this is no coincidence since they are functionally equivalent.
Creates a hypertext link to a document anchor.
<<<id>,<caption>>> xref:<id>[<caption>]
The <id> refers to an existing anchor <id>. The optional <caption> is the link's displayed text. If <caption> is not specified then the <id>, enclosed in square brackets, is displayed. Example:
<<X15,attribute lists>>
Hypertext links to files on the local filesystem are specified using the link inline macro.
link:<target>[<caption>]
The link macro generates relative URLs. The link macro <target> is the target file name (relative to the file system location of the referring document). The optional <caption> is the link's displayed text. If <caption> is not specified then <target> is displayed. Example:
link:downloads/foo.zip[download foo.zip]
You can use the <filename>#<id> syntax to refer to an anchor within a target document but this usually only makes sense when targeting HTML documents.
Images can serve as hyperlinks using the image macro.
Inline images are inserted into the output document using the image macro. The inline syntax is:
image:<target>[<attributes>]
The contents of the image file <target> is displayed. To display the image it's file format must be supported by the target backend application. HTML and DocBook applications normally support PNG or JPG files.
<target> file name paths are relative to the location of the referring document.
Image macro attributes
The optional first positional attribute list entry specifies the alternative text which is displayed if the output application is unable to process the image file. For example:
image:images/logo.png[Company Logo]
The optional width and height named attributes scale the image size and can be used in any combination. The following example scales the previous example to a height of 32 pixels:
image:images/logo.png["Company Logo",height=32]
The optional link named attribute is used to link the image to an external document. The following example links a screenshot thumbnail to a full size version:
image:screen-thumbnail.png[height=32,link="screen.png"]
A Block macro reference must be contained in a single line separated either side by a blank line or a block delimiter.
Block macros behave just like Inline macros, with the following differences:
The Block Identifier macro sets the id attribute and has the same syntax as the anchor inline macro since it performs essentially the same function — block templates employ the id attribute as a block link target. For example:
[[X30]]
This is equivalent to the [id="X30"] block attribute list.
Formal images are inserted into the output document using the image macro. The syntax is:
image::<target>[<attributes>]
In all respects, apart from context, the use of the block image macro is exactly the same as it's inline counterpart.
The image can be titled by preceding the image macro with a BlockTitle. DocBook processors can normally be configured to include titled images in an automatically generated List of Figures.
For example:
.Main circuit board image::images/layout.png[J14P main circuit board]
Single lines starting with two forward slashes hard up against the left margin are treated as comments and are stripped from the output. Comment lines have been implemented as a block macro and are only valid in a block context — they are not treated as comments inside paragraphs or delimited blocks. For example:
// This is a comment.
See also Comment Blocks.
System macros are block macros that perform a predefined task which is hardwired into the asciidoc(1) program.
These system macros include the contents of a named file in the source document; it's as if the included file were part of the parent document.
There are two include macros: include which allows nested include macros and include1 which does not allow nested includes.
Example 2. Include macro examples
include::chapter1.txt[tabsize=4] +++++++++++++++++++++++ include1::table6.html[] +++++++++++++++++++++++
Include macro behavior
Lines of text in the source document can be selectively included or excluded from processing based on the the existence (or not) of a document attribute. There are two forms of conditional inclusion macro usage, the first includes document text between the ifdef and endif macros if a document attribute is defined:
ifdef::<attribute>[] : endif::<attribute>[]
The second for includes document text between the ifndef and endif macros if the attribute is not defined:
ifndef::<attribute>[] : endif::<attribute>[]
<attribute> is an attribute name which is optional in the trailing endif macro.
Take a look at the *.conf configuration files in the asciidoc(1) program directory for examples.
These system macros exhibit the same behavior as their same named system attribute references. The difference is that they are expanded globally, not just in an inline attribute context.
The following example displays a directory listing as a literal block:
-------------------- sys::[ls -ltr *.txt] --------------------
The template system block macro allows the inclusion of one configuration file template section within another. The following example copies the [admonitionblock] section into the [admonitionparagraph] section:
[admonitionparagraph] template::[admonitionblock]
Template macro behavior
Each entry in the configuration [macros] section is a macro definition which can take one of the following forms:
<pattern> is a Python regular expression and <name> is the name of a markup template. If <name> is omitted then it is the value of the named regular expression match group named name.
Here's what happens during macro substitution
Tables are the most complex AsciiDoc elements and this section is quite long. [3]
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AsciiDoc generates nice HTML tables, but the current crop of commonly deployed DocBook stylesheets render tables with varying degrees of success. Use tables only when really necessary. |
The following annotated examples are all you'll need to start creating your own tables.
The only non-obvious thing you'll need to remember are the column stop characters:
Simple table:
`---`--- 1 2 3 4 5 6 --------
Output:
1 | 2 |
3 | 4 |
5 | 6 |
Table with title, header and footer:
.An example table [grid="all"] '---------.-------------- Column 1 Column 2 ------------------------- 1 Item 1 2 Item 2 3 Item 3 ------------------------- 6 Three items -------------------------
Output:
Four columns totaling 15% of the pagewidth, CSV data:
[frame="all"] ````~15 1,2,3,4 a,b,c,d A,B,C,D ~~~~~~~~
Output:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
a | b | c | d |
A | B | C | D |
A table with a numeric ruler and externally sourced CSV data:
[frame="all", grid="all"] .15`20`25`20`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ID,Customer Name,Contact Name,Customer Address,Phone ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ include::customers.csv[] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Renders:
ID | Customer Name | Contact Name | Customer Address | Phone |
---|---|---|---|---|
AROUT | Around the Horn | Thomas Hardy | 120 Hanover Sq. London | (171) 555-7788 |
BERGS | Berglunds snabbkop | Christina Berglund | Berguvsvagen 8 Lulea | 0921-12 34 65 |
BLAUS | Blauer See Delikatessen | Hanna Moos | Forsterstr. 57 Mannheim | 0621-08460 |
BLONP | Blondel pere et fils | Frederique Citeaux | 24, place Kleber Strasbourg | 88.60.15.31 |
BOLID | Bolido Comidas preparadas | Martin Sommer | C/ Araquil, 67 Madrid | (91) 555 22 82 |
BONAP | Bon app' | Laurence Lebihan | 12, rue des Bouchers Marseille | 91.24.45.40 |
BOTTM | Bottom-Dollar Markets | Elizabeth Lincoln | 23 Tsawassen Blvd. Tsawassen | (604) 555-4729 |
BSBEV | B's Beverages | Victoria Ashworth | Fauntleroy Circus London | (171) 555-1212 |
CACTU | Cactus Comidas para llevar | Patricio Simpson | Cerrito 333 Buenos Aires | (1) 135-5555 |
This sub-section details the AsciiDoc source file table format.
Table ::= (Ruler,Header?,Body,Footer?) Header ::= (Row+,Underline) Footer ::= (Row+,Underline) Body ::= (Row+,Underline) Row ::= (Data+)
A table is terminated when the table underline is followed by a blank line or an end of file. Table underlines which separate table headers, bodies and footers should not be followed by a blank line.
The first line of the table is called the Ruler. The Ruler specifies which configuration file table definition to use, column widths, column alignments and the overall table width.
There are two ruler formats:
The ruler format can be summarized as:
ruler ::= ((colstop,(colwidth,fillchar+)?)+, fillchar+, tablewidth?
Column stop characters specify the start and alignment of each column:
Each table row consists of a line of text containing the same number of Data items as there are columns in the table,
Lines ending in a backslash character are continued on the next line.
Each Data item is an AsciiDoc substitutable string. The substitutions performed are specified by the subs table definition entry. Data cannot contain AsciiDoc block elements.
The format of the row is determined by the table definition format value:
The DSV (Delimiter Separated Values) format is a common UNIX tabular text file format.
A table Underline consists of a line of three or more fillchar characters which are end delimiters for table header, footer and body sections.
The following optional table attributes can be specified in an AttributeList preceding the table:
You can also use an AttributeList to override the following table definition and ruler parameters: format, subs, tablewidth.
The following attributes are automatically available inside table tag and markup templates.
The colwidth value is calculated as (N is the ruler column width number and M is the sum of the ruler column widths):
( N / M ) * pagewidth
If the ruler tablewidth was specified the column width is multiplied again by this value.
There is one exception: character rulers that have no pagewidth specified. In this case the colwidth value is calculated as (where N is the column character width measured on the table ruler):
( N / textwidth ) * pagewidth
The following attributes are available to the table markup template:
Sooner or later, if you program for a UNIX environment, you're going to have to write a man page.
By observing a couple of additional conventions you can compose AsciiDoc files that will translate to a DocBook refentry (man page) document. The resulting DocBook file can then be translated to the native roff man page format (or other formats).
For example, the asciidoc.1.txt file in the AsciiDoc distribution ./doc directory was used to generate both asciidoc.1.css-embedded.html HTML file and command) the asciidoc.1 roff formatted asciidoc(1) man page.
To find out more about man pages view the man(7) manpage (man 7 man command).
The document Header is mandatory. The title line contains the man page name followed immediately by the manual section number in brackets, for example ASCIIDOC(1). The title name should not contain white space and the manual section number is a single digit optionally followed by a single character.
The first manpage section is mandatory and must be called NAME and contain a single paragraph (usually a single line) consisting of a list of one or more comma separated command name(s) separated from the command purpose by a dash character. The dash must have at least one white space character on either side. For example:
printf, fprintf, sprintf - print formatted output
AsciiDoc source file syntax and output file markup is largely controlled by a set of cascading, text based, configuration files. At runtime The AsciiDoc default configuration files are combined with optional document and user specific configuration files.
Configuration files contain named sections. Each section begins with a section name in square brackets []. The section body consists of the lines of text between adjacent section headings.
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When creating custom configuration files you only need to include the sections and entries that differ from the default configuration. |
![]() | Tip |
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The best way to learn about configuration files is to read the default configuration files in the asciidoc(1) program directory along with generated backend output and the backend markup spec. You view configuration file processing by turning on the asciidoc(1) -v command-line option. |
Markup template sections supply backend markup for translating AsciiDoc elements. Since the text is normally backend dependent you'll find these sections in the backend specific configuration files. A markup template section body can contain:
The document content placeholder is a single | character and is replaced by text from the source document. Use the {brvbar} attribute reference if you need a literal | character.
AsciiDoc reserves the following predefined, or Special, section names for specific purposes:
Each line of text in a Special section is a section entry. Section entries can take the following forms:
Section entry behavior
The optional [miscellaneous] section specifies the following name=value options:
Output file line termination characters. Can include any valid Python string escape sequences. The default value is \r\n (carriage return, line feed). Should not be quoted or contain explicit spaces (use \x20 instead). For example:
$ asciidoc -a 'newline=\n' -b docbook mydoc.txt
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[miscellaneous] configuration file entries can be set using the asciidoc(1) -a command-line option and perform the usual attribute substitutions. |
A comma separated list of document and section title underline character pairs starting with the Header underline and ending with Section level 4 underline. The default setting is:
underlines="==","--","~~","^^","++"
BlockTitle line title pattern. The entry value is a Python regular expression containing the named group title. The title group's matching value is used as the following element's title.
underlines="==","--","~~","^^","++"
The [tags] section contains AsciiDoc tag definitions (one per line). Tags are used to translate AsciiDoc elements to backend markup.
An AsciiDoc tag definition is formatted like <tagname>=<starttag>|<endtag>. For example:
emphasis=<em>|</em>
In this example asciidoc(1) replaces the | character with the emphasized text from the AsciiDoc input file and writes the result to the output file.
Use the {brvbar} attribute reference if you need to include a | pipe character inside tag text.
The optional [attributes] section contains attribute entries.
If the attribute value requires leading or trailing spaces then the text text should be enclosed in double-quote (") characters.
To delete a attribute insert a name only entry in a downstream configuration file or use the asciidoc(1) -a ^name command-line option (the attribute name is prefixed with a ^ character to delete it).
The [specialcharacters] section specifies how to translate each of the characters reserved by the backend markup. Each translation is specified on a single line formatted like:
special_character=translated_characters
Special characters are normally confined to those that resolve markup ambiguity (in the case of SGML/XML markups the ampersand, less than and greater than characters). For example:
<=<
When special character substitution is enabled all occurrences of < will be replaced by <.
The [quotes] section defines the text formatting markup characters that are used to envelope words and word phrases. Each section entry value has a corresponding tag entry from the [tags] section. The entry name defines the one (or more) characters that quote the text. In this example a double underscore defines underlined HTML markup:
[quotes] __=underline
[tags] underline=<u>|</u>
You can specify the left and right quote strings separately by separating them with a | character, for example:
[quotes] ((|))=gui
If you set the tag to none then a blank string will be substituted for the quoted text which has the effect of dropping the quote from the output document.
Quoted text behavior
The [specialwords] section is used to single out words and phrases that you want to consistently highlight in some way throughout your document without having to repeatedly specify the markup. The name of each entry corresponds to a markup template section and the entry value consists of a list of words and phrases to be marked up. For example:
[specialwords] strongwords=NOTE: IMPORTANT:
[strongwords] <strong>{words}</strong>
The examples specifies that any occurrence of NOTE: or IMPORTANT: should appear in a bold font.
Words and word phrases are treated as Python regular expressions: for example, the word ^NOTE: would only match NOTE: if appeared at the start of a line.
AsciiDoc comes with three built-in Special Word types: emphasizedwords, monospacedwords and strongwords. Each type has a corresponding markup template section. Edit the configuration files to customize existing Special Words and to add new ones.
Special word behavior
[replacements] configuration file entries specify find and replace text and are formatted like:
find_pattern=replacement_text
The find text can be a Python regular expression; the replace text can contain Python regular expression group references.
Use Replacement shortcuts for often used macro references, for example:
#NEW#=image:{imagesdir=images}/smallnew.png[New!]
Replacement behavior
Configuration files have a .conf file name extension; they are loaded implicitly (using predefined file names and locations) or explicitly (using the asciidoc(1) -f command-line option).
Implicit configuration files are loaded from the following directories in the following order:
The following implicit configuration files from each of the above locations are loaded in the following order:
Where <backend> and <doctype> are values specified by the asciidoc(1) -b and -d command-line options.
Finally, configuration files named like the source file will be automatically loaded if they are found in the source file directory. For example if the source file is mydoc.txt and the -b html4 option is used then asciidoc(1) will look for mydoc.conf and mydoc-html4.conf in that order.
Implicit configuration files that don't exist will be silently skipped.
The user can explicitly specify additional configuration files using the asciidoc(1) -f command-line option. The -f option can be specified multiple times, in which case configuration files will be processed in the order they appear on the command-line.
For example, when we translate our AsciiDoc document mydoc.txt with:
$ asciidoc -b xhtml11 -f extra.conf mydoc.txt
Configuration files (if they exist) will be processed in the following order:
First default global configuration files from the asciidoc program directory are loaded:
asciidoc.conf xhtml11.conf
Then, from the users home ~/.asciidoc directory. This is were you put customization specific to your own asciidoc documents:
asciidoc.conf xhtml11.conf xhtml11-article.conf
Next from the source document project directory (the first three apply to all documents in the directory, the last two are specific to the mydoc.txt document):
asciidoc.conf xhtml11.conf xhtml11-article.conf mydoc.conf mydoc-xhtml11.conf
Finally the file specified by the -f command-line option is loaded:
extra.conf
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Use the asciidoc(1) -v command-line option to see which configuration files are loaded and the order of they are loaded. |
A document attribute is comprised of a name and a textual value and is used for textual substitution in AsciiDoc documents and configuration files. An attribute reference (an attribute name enclosed in braces) is replaced by it's their corresponding attribute value.
There are four sources of document attributes (from highest to lowest precedence):
Within each of these divisions the last processed entry takes precedence.
![]() | Important |
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If an attribute is not defined then the line containing the attribute reference is dropped and is not written to the output file. This property is used extensively in AsciiDoc configuration files to facilitate conditional markup generation. |
The AttributeEntry block element allows document attributes to be assigned within an AsciiDoc document. Attribute entries are added to the global document attributes dictionary. The attribute name/value syntax is a single line like:
:<name>: <value>
For example:
:Author Initials: JB
This will set an attribute reference {authorinitials} to the value JB in the current document.
To delete (undefine) an attribute use the following syntax:
:<name>!:
AttributeEntry properties
![]() | Note |
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The author attribute as a special case, it also sets the firstname attribute and (if specified) surname and authorinitials attributes. |
Here's another example:
AsciiDoc User Manual ==================== :Author: Stuart Rackham :Email: srackham@methods.co.nz :Date: April 23, 2004 :Revision: 5.1.1 :Key words: linux, ralink, debian, wireless :Revision history:
Which create these attributes:
{author}, {firstname}, {surname}, {authorinitials}, {email}, {date}, {revision}, {keywords}, {revisionhistory}
The preceding example is equivalent to the standard AsciiDoc two line document header. Actually it's a little bit different with the addition of the {keywords} and {revisionhistory} [4] attributes.
An attribute list is a comma separated list of attribute values. The entire list is enclosed in square brackets. Attribute lists are used to pass parameters to macros and block elements.
The list consists of zero or more positional attribute values followed by zero or more named attribute values. Here are three examples:
[Hello] [Bertrand Russell, The World of Mathematics (1956)] ["22 times", backcolor="#0e0e0e", options="noborders,wide"]
Attribute list properties
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To view processed attribute list values use the asciidoc(1) -v command-line option. |
All macros calls are suffixed with an attribute list. The list may be empty but it cannot be omitted. List entries are used to pass attribute values for macro substitution.
An attribute list on a line by itself constitutes an AttributeList block element, it's function is to parameterize the following block element. The list attributes are passed to the next block element for markup template substitution.
List attributes are available in Title, Paragraph, DelimitedBlock, List and Table element markup templates.
Intrinsic attributes are created automatically from document header parameters, asciidoc(1) command-line arguments, environment parameters along with attributes defined in the default configuration files. Here's the list of predefined intrinsic attributes:
{asciidoc-version} the version of asciidoc(1) {asciidoc-dir} the asciidoc(1) application directory {user-dir} the ~/.asciidoc directory (if it exists) {authorinitials} author initials (from document header) {author} author's full name ({firstname} {middlename} {lastname}) {authored} empty string '' if {author} or {email} defined, otherwise undefined. {date} document date (from document header) {doctitle} document title (from document header) {email} author's email address (from document header) {firstname} author first name (from document header) {lastname} author last name (from document header) {localdate} the current date {localtime} the current time {manname} manpage name (defined in NAME section) {manpurpose} manpage (defined in NAME section) {mantitle} manpage title (from document header) {manvolnum} manpage volume number (1..8) (from document header) {middlename} author middle name (from document header) {revision} document revision number (from document header) {title} section title (defined titled element substitution sections) {sectnum} section number (defined in section titles markup template sections) {amp} ampersand (&) character {lt} less than (<) character {gt} greater than (>) character {brvbar} broken vertical bar (|) character {empty} empty string '' {infile} input file name {outfile} output file name {docdir} document directory name (no trailing separator) {docname} document file name without extension {doctype} document type specified by `-d` option {filetype} output file name file extension {backend} document backend specified by `-b` option {backend-<backend>} empty string '' {<backend>-<doctype>} empty string '' {doctype-<doctype>} empty string '' {filetype-<fileext>} empty string '' {basebackend} html or docbook {basebackend-<base>} empty string '' {imagesdir} directory containing admonition icons (HTML backend; if undefined defaults to ./images) {stylesdir} directory containing CSS stylesheets (CSS backends; if undefined defaults to .)
The entries that translate to blank strings are designed to be used for conditional text inclusion (remember that if an undefined attribute is referenced then the containing line will be dropped from the output). You can also use the ifdef, ifndef and endif System macros for conditional inclusion. [5]
An attribute references is an attribute name (possibly followed by an expression) enclosed in braces. When an attribute reference is encountered it is evaluated and replaced by its corresponding text value. If there is no corresponding text value the attribute is said to be undefined and the line containing the attribute is dropped.
There are three types of attribute reference: Simple, Conditional and System.
Attribute reference behavior
Simple attribute references take the form {<name>}. If the attribute name is defined its text value is substituted otherwise the line containing the reference is dropped from the output.
Conditional attribute references return text that is predicated on the existence of an attribute. Conditional attribute references take the following forms:
System attribute references generate the attribute text value by executing a predefined action parameterized by a single argument. The syntax is {<action>:<argument>}.
Substitutes contents of the file named <filename>.
System reference behavior
The eval system attribute is handy for situations that can't be handled using conditional attributes. Here are few examples:
In the second example {layout} evaluates to wide if not defined.
{eval:"{layout}"=="normal"}Layout is "normal" {eval:"{layout=wide}"!="normal"}Layout is not "normal"
In this example a Python dictionary is used to map the {frame} attribute value (note the use of backslashes to escape brace characters inside the eval expression):
{eval:\{"topbot":"hsides", "all":"border", "sides":"vsides"\}["{frame}"]}
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Use the asciidoc(1) verbose (-v) option to debug eval's. |
The syntax and behavior of Paragraph, DelimitedBlock, List and Table block elements is determined by block definitions contained in AsciiDoc configuration file sections.
Each definition consists of a section title followed by one or more section entries. Each entry defines a block parameter controlling some aspect of the block's behavior. Here's an example:
[blockdef-listing] delimiter=^-{4,}$ template=listingblock presubs=specialcharacters,callouts
AsciiDoc Paragraph, DelimitedBlock, List and Table block elements share a common subset of configuration file parameters:
The following composite values are also allowed:
Optional comma separated list of positional attribute names. This list maps positional attributes (in the block's attribute list) to named block attributes. The following example, from the QuoteBlock definition, maps the first and section positional attributes:
posattrs=attribution,citetitle
The following block parameters behave like document attributes and can be set in block attribute lists and style definitions: template, options, subs, presubs, postsubs, filter.
A style is a set of block attributes bundled as a single named attribute. The following example defines a style named verbatim:
verbatim-style=template="literalblock",subs="verbatim",font="monospaced"
All style parameter names must be suffixed with -style and the style parameter value is in the form of a list of named attributes.
Paragraph translation is controlled by [paradef*] configuration file section entries. Users can define new types of paragraphs and modify the behavior of existing types by editing AsciiDoc configuration files.
Here is the shipped Default paragraph definition:
[paradef-default] delimiter=(?P<text>\S.*) template=paragraph
The Default paragraph definition has a couple of special properties:
Paragraph specific block parameter notes:
Paragraph processing proceeds as follows:
Delimited Block specific block parameter notes:
Allowed values are:
presubs, postsubs and filter entries are meaningless when sectionbody, skip or list options are set.
DelimitedBlock processing proceeds as follows:
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Attribute expansion is performed on the block filter command before it is executed, this is useful for passing arguments to the filter. |
List behavior and syntax is determined by [listdef*] configuration file sections. The user can change existing list behavior and add new list types by editing configuration files.
List specific block parameter notes:
The tag entries map the AsciiDoc list structure to backend markup; see the shipped AsciiDoc .conf configuration files for examples.
Table behavior and syntax is determined by [tabledef*] configuration file sections. The user can change existing list behavior and add new list types by editing configuration files.
Table specific block parameter notes:
Table behaviour is also influenced by the following [miscellaneous] configuration file entries:
Table definition behavior
Filters are external shell commands used to process Paragraph and DelimitedBlock content; they are specified in configuration file Paragraph and DelimitedBlock definitions.
There's nothing special about the filters, they're just standard UNIX filters: they read text from the standard input, process it, and write it to the standard output.
Attribute substitution is performed on the filter command prior to execution — attributes can be used to pass parameters from the AsciiDoc source document to the filter.
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Filter functionality is currently only available on POSIX platforms (this includes Cygwin). |
If the filter command does not specify a directory path then asciidoc(1) searches for the command:
Since filters are normally part of new Paragraph or DelimitedBlock definitions they are usually accompanied by a configuration file.
asciidoc(1) auto-loads all .conf files found in the user's $HOME/.asciidoc/filters directory and the asciidoc(1) ./filters subdirectory.
AsciiDoc comes with a simple minded code-filter for highlighting source code keywords and comments. [6] You can find the code-filter in the AsciiDoc distribution ./filters subdirectory (read the ./filters/code-filter-readme.txt file for instructions).
The following example highlights Python keywords in the block's content:
.Code filter example [python] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ''' A multi-line comment.''' def sub_word(mo): ''' Single line comment.''' word = mo.group('word') # Inline comment if word in keywords[language]: return quote + word + quote else: return word ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Outputs:
The asciidoc(1) command has a --help option which prints help topics to stdout. The default topic summarizes the help options:
$ asciidoc --help
To print a list of help topics:
$ asciidoc --help topics
To print a help topic specify the topic name as a command argument. For example:
$ asciidoc --help manpage
To change, delete or add your own help topics edit a help.conf file. The file location will depend on whether you want the topics to apply to all users, to a single user or to a single project.
Help topics are stored help.conf text files. The help topic files have the same named section format as other configuration files. The help.conf files are stored in the same locations and loaded in the same order as all other configuration files.
When the --help command-line option is specified AsciiDoc loads the help.conf files and then prints the contents of the section whose name matches the help topic name. If a topic name is not specified default is used. If a matching help file section is not found a list of available topics is printed.
Writing AsciiDoc documents will be a whole lot more pleasant if you know your favorite text editor. Learn how to indent and reformat text blocks, paragraphs, lists and sentences. Tips for vim users follow.
The Vim text editor's gq command is great for reformatting and indenting AsciiDoc paragraphs and lists.
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The Vim website (http://www.vim.org) has a wealth of resources, including scripts for automated spell checking and ASCII Art drawing. |
Use the vim :gq command to reformat paragraphs. Setting the textwidth sets the right text wrap margin; for example:
:set textwidth=70
To reformat a paragraph:
Execute :help gq command to read about the vim gq command.
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Put set commands in your ~/.vimrc file so you don't have to enter them manually. |
The :gq command can also be used to format bulleted and numbered lists. First you need to:
For example:
:set textwidth=70 formatoptions=tcqn autoindent :set comments=s1:/*,ex:*/,://,b:#,:%,fb:-,fb:*,fb:.,fb:+,fb:>
Now you can format simple lists that use dash, asterisk, period and plus bullets along with numbered ordered lists:
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Assign the gq} command to the Q key with the :nnoremap Q gq} command or put it in your ~/.vimrc file to so it's always available. |
Here's how I setup my .vimrc file:
nnoremap Q gq} autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt,README,TODO,CHANGELOG,NOTES \ setlocal autoindent expandtab tabstop=8 softtabstop=2 shiftwidth=2 \ textwidth=70 wrap formatoptions=tcqn \ comments=s1:/*,ex:*/,://,b:#,:%,:XCOMM,fb:-,fb:*,fb:+,fb:.,fb:>
If text in your document is incorrectly interpreted as formatting instructions you can suppress formatting by placing a backslash character immediately in front of the leading quote character(s). For example in the following line the backslash prevents text between the two asterisks from being output in a strong (bold) font:
Add `\*.cs` files and `*.resx` files.
Overlapping text formatting will generate illegal overlapping markup tags which will result in downstream XML parsing errors. Here's an example:
Some *strong markup 'that overlaps* emphasized markup'.
Lines beginning with numbers at the end of sentences will be interpreted as ordered list items. The following example (incorrectly) begins a new list with item number 1999:
He was last sighted in 1999. Since then things have moved on.
The list item out of sequence warning makes is unlikely that this problem will go unnoticed.
Special character substitution precedes attribute substitution so if attribute values contain special characters you may, depending on the substitution context, need to substitute the special characters yourself. For example:
$ asciidoc -a 'companyname=Bill & Ben' -b xhtml11 mydoc.txt
If named attribute list entries are used then positional attribute values must be quoted. For example:
["Desktop screenshot",width=32]
You have a number of stand-alone AsciiDoc documents that you want to process as a single document. Simply processing them with a series of include macros won't work, because instead of starting at level 1 the section levels of the combined document start at level 0 (the document title level).
The solution is to redefine the title underlines so that document and section titles are pushed down one level.
Push the standard title underlines down one level by defining a new level 0 underline in a custom configuration file. For example combined.conf:
[titles] underlines="__","==","--","~~","^^"
Create a top level wrapper document. For example combined.txt:
Combined Document Title _______________________ include::document1.txt[] include::document2.txt[] include::document3.txt[]
Process the wrapper document. For example:
$ asciidoc -b xhtml11 -f combined.conf combined.txt
Actually the -f is unnecessary as asciidoc(1) automatically looks for a same-named .conf file.
You have divided your AsciiDoc document into separate files (one per top level section) which are combined and processed with the following top level document:
Combined Document Title ======================= Joe Bloggs v1.0, 12-Aug-03 include::section1.txt[] include::section2.txt[] include::section3.txt[]
You also want to process the section files as separate documents. This is easy because asciidoc(1) will quite happily process section1.txt, section2.txt and section3.txt separately.
If you want to promote the section levels up one level, so the document is processed just like a stand-alone document, then pop the section underline definition up one level:
[titles] underlines="--","~~","^^","++","__"
The last "__" underline is a dummy that won't actually be used but is necessary to legitimize the underline definition.
This is just the reverse of the technique used for combining separate documents explained in the previous section.
asciidoc(1) can be used as a filter, so you can pipe chunks of text through it. For example:
$ echo 'Hello *World!*' | asciidoc -s -b xhtml11 - <p> Hello <strong>World!</strong> </p>
The -s command-line option suppresses header and footer output and is useful if the processed output is to be included in another file.
See the [footer] section in the AsciiDoc distribution xhtml11.conf configuration file.
If the indentation and layout of the asciidoc(1) output is not to your liking you can:
Or use Dave Raggett's excellent HTML Tidy program to tidy asciidoc(1) output. Example:
$ asciidoc -b docbook -o - mydoc.txt | tidy -indent -xml >mydoc.xml
HTML Tidy can be downloaded from http://tidy.sourceforge.net/
The conditional inclusion of DocBook SGML markup at the end of the distribution docbook.conf file illustrates how to support minor DTD variations. The included sections override corresponding entries from preceding sections.
Reproducing presentation documents from some else's source has one major problem: unless your configuration files are the same creator's you won't get the same output.
The solution is to create a single backend specific configuration file using the asciidoc(1) -c command-line option. You then ship this file along with the AsciiDoc source document plus the asciidoc.py script. The only end user requirement is that they have Python installed. This example creates a composite HTML configuration file for mydoc.txt:
$ asciidoc -cb xhtml11 mydoc.txt > mydoc-html.conf
Ship mydoc.txt, mydoc-html.conf, and asciidoc.py. With these three files (and a Python interpreter) the recipient can regenerate the HMTL output:
$ ./asciidoc.py -eb xhtml11 mydoc.txt
The -e option excludes the use of any existing implicit configuration files, ensuring that only entries from the mydoc-html.conf configuration are used.
Adjust your style sheets to add the correct separation between block elements. Inserting blank paragraphs containing a single non-breaking space character {nbsp} works but is an ad hoc solution compared to using style sheets.
You can close off section tags up to level N by calling the eval::[Section.setlevel(N)] system macro. This is useful if you want to a section composed of raw markup. The following example includes a DocBook glossary division at the top section level (level 0):
ifdef::backend-docbook[] eval::[Section.setlevel(0)] +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ <glossary> <title>Glossary</title> <glossdiv> ... </glossdiv> </glossary> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ endif::backend-docbook[]
For reasons outlined previously documents with an article or book type structure will usually be processed using AsciiDoc's DocBook output. The distributed AsciiDoc User Guide plus the example article and book template documents have been generated in this way.
The toolchain processing steps are:
Here are the commands and packages I use to generate the AsciiDoc HTML, PDF and HTML Help documentation files:
You will have noticed that the distributed PDF, HTML and HTML Help documentation files (for example ./doc/asciidoc.html) are not the plain outputs produced using the default DocBook XSL Stylesheets configuration. This is because they have been processed using customized DocBook XSL Stylesheet drivers along with (in the case of HTML outputs) the custom ./stylesheets/docbook.css CSS stylesheet.
You'll find the customized DocBook XSL drivers in the distribution ./doc directory. The examples which follow are executed from the distribution ./doc directory:
Generate chunked XHTML (separate HTML pages for each document section) in the ./doc/chunked directory. For example:
$ python ../asciidoc.py -b docbook asciidoc.txt $ xsltproc --nonet chunked.xsl asciidoc.xml
Generate XSL Formatting Object (*.fo) files for subsequent PDF file generation using FOP. For example:
$ python ../asciidoc.py -b docbook article.txt $ xsltproc --nonet fo.xsl article.xml > article.fo $ fop.sh article.fo article.pdf
Generate Microsoft HTML Help source files for the MS HTML Help Compiler in the ./doc/htmlhelp directory. See the article at http://www.codeproject.com/winhelp/docbook_howto.asp. This example is run on MS Windows from a Cygwin shell prompt:
$ python ../asciidoc.py -b docbook asciidoc.txt $ xsltproc --nonet htmlhelp.xsl asciidoc.xml $ c:/Program\ Files/HTML\ Help\ Workshop/hhc.exe htmlhelp.hhp $ mv htmlhelp.chm asciidoc.chm
Generate a roff(1) format UNIX man page from a DocBook XML refentry document. This example generates an asciidoc.1 man page file:
$ python ../asciidoc.py -d manpage -b docbook asciidoc.1.txt $ xsltproc --nonet manpages.xsl asciidoc.1.xml
Convert a DocBook XML file to a single XHTML file. For example:
$ python ../asciidoc.py -b docbook asciidoc.txt $ xsltproc --nonet xhtml.xsl asciidoc.xml > asciidoc.html
If you want to see how the complete documentation set is processed take a look at the A-A-P script ./doc/main.aap.
The DocBook XSL Stylesheets package contains a set of XSL stylesheets for converting DocBook XML documents to HTML, XSL-FO and HTML Help source (see http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/). It is used in conjunction with an XML parser such as xsltproc.
See also AsciiDoc XSL Drivers.
XSL Stylesheets can be used to generate FO (Formatting Object) files, which in turn can be used to produce PDF files using the Apache Formatting Object Processor program (FOP). More the FOP home page is at http://xml.apache.org/fop/.
Reasons to us FOP:
As of version 0.20.5 installation and configuration of FOP is a manual process. You also need a working Java Runtime to run FOP.
Edit the distribution fop.bat file and put it in the search PATH:
set LOCAL_FOP_HOME=C:\bin\fop-0.20.5
Edit the distribution fop.bat file again and add the JIMI library to LOCALCLASSPATH:
set LOCALCLASSPATH=%LOCALCLASSPATH%;%LIBDIR%\JimiProClasses.jar
You should now be able to run FOP from a DOS prompt — execute it without arguments to get a list of command options:
> fop.bat
Here's how I installed FOP on Fedora Core 1:
Install the FOP distribution:
$ su # cd /usr/local/lib # unzip ~srackham/tmp/fop-0.20.5-bin.zip # cp /usr/local/lib/fop-0.20.5/fop.sh /usr/local/bin # chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fop.sh
Edit the FOP start script fop.sh adding this line to the start of the script:
FOP_HOME=/usr/local/lib/fop-0.20.5
Extract the JimiProClasses.jar library from the JIMI distribution and copy to the FOP lib directory.
# cp ~srackham/tmp/JimiProClasses.jar /usr/local/lib/fop-0.20.5/lib/
You should now be able to run FOP from a DOS prompt — execute it without arguments to get a list of command options:
$ fop.sh
First check that Java is not already installed:
Enter this command:
java -version
You should see something like this:
java version "1.4.2_01" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_01-b06) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_01-b06, mixed mode)
If you don't Java is not installed and you need to:
Check Java is not already installed by entering the following command:
$ java -version
You should see something like this:
java version "1.4.2_01" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_01-b06) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_01-b06, mixed mode)
If you don't Java is not installed and you need to download the Sun Java Runtime (JRE) for Linux from http://java.sun.com.
Here's how I installed the RPM version of the JRE on Fedora Core 1:
$ ./j2re-1_4_2_05-linux-i586-rpm.bin $ su # rpm -vih j2re-1_4_2_05-linux-i586.rpm # vi /etc/profile.d/java.sh # chmod +x /etc/profile.d/java.sh ^D $ . /etc/profile.d/java.sh $ java -version java version "1.4.2_05" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_05-b04) Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_05-b04, mixed mode) $
The following two lines are entered into the /etc/profile.d/java.sh file:
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_05/bin/ export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_05
The default XML character set UTF-8 is used when AsciiDoc generates DocBook files (but you can change it by changing the xmldecl entry in the [attributes] section of the docbook.conf file or by composing your own configuration file [header] section).
If you're familiar with HTML there are many predefined character entities that you will have taken for granted — for example the non-breaking space character . XML has only five predefined named character entities: &, <, >, " and '. Any others (for example ) have to be either defined or included.
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If you get an undefined entity error when processing DocBook files you'll may find that you've used an undefined HTML character entity. An easy (although inelegant) fix is to use the character's character code instead of it's symbolic name (for example use   instead of ). |
If your system has been configured with an XML catalog you may find a number of entity sets are already automatically included — if you're using Fedora Linux take a look at the global /etc/xml/catalog file.
The Adobe PDF Specification states that the following 14 fonts should be available to every PDF reader: Helvetica (normal, bold, italic, bold italic), Times (normal, bold, italic, bold italic), Courier (normal, bold, italic, bold italic), Symbol and ZapfDingbats. Non-standard fonts should be embedded in the distributed document.
An AsciiDoc block element is a document entity composed of one or more lines of text which translate to a block of output lines.
An AsciiDoc block element that has a BlockTitle. Formal elements are normally listed in front or back matter, for example lists of tables, examples and figures.
AsciiDoc inline elements occur within block element textual content, they perform formatting and substitution tasks.
The word verbatim indicates that white space and line breaks in the source document are to be preserved in the output document.
The changes that affect the most users relate to renamed and deprecated backends and command-line syntax:
Table A.1. Equivalent command-line syntax
Version 6 (old) | Version 7 (new) | Version 7 (backward compatible) |
---|---|---|
-b html | -b html4 | -b html4 |
-b css | -b xhtml11 -a linkcss -a icons | -b xhtml-deprecated -a css -a linkcss -a icons |
-b css-embedded | -b xhtml11 -a icons | -b xhtml-deprecated -a css -a icons |
-b xhtml | -b xhtml11 | -b xhtml-deprecated |
-b docbook-sgml | -b docbook -a sgml | -b docbook -a sgml |
If you've customised version 6 distribution stylesheets then you'll need to either bring them in line with the new ./stylesheets/xhtml11*.css class and id names or stick with the backward compatible xhtml-deprecated backend.
Changes to configuration file syntax:
[1] This is a rough structural guide, not a rigorous syntax definition
[2] An example footnote.
[3] The current table syntax is overly complicated and unwieldy to edit, a more usable syntax will appear in future versions of AsciiDoc.
[4] The existence of a {revisionhistory} attribute causes a revision history file (if it exists) to be included in DocBook outputs. If a file named like {docname}-revhistory.xml exists in the document's directory then it will be added to the DocBook header (see the ./doc/asciidoc-revhistory.xml example that comes with the AsciiDoc distribution).
[5] Conditional inclusion using ifdef and ifndef macros differs from attribute conditional inclusion in that the former occurs when the file is read while the latter occurs when the contents are written.
[6] The example code filter shipped with AsciiDoc is provided as an example filter and is by no means meant to be a production quality syntax highlighter