sphinx-build - Sphinx documentation generator tool
sphinx-build [options] <sourcedir>
<outputdir> [filenames ...]
sphinx-build generates documentation from the files in
<sourcedir> and places it in the <outputdir>.
sphinx-build looks for <sourcedir>/conf.py for
the configuration settings. sphinx-quickstart(1) may be used to
generate template files, including conf.py.
sphinx-build can create documentation in different formats.
A format is selected by specifying the builder name on the command line; it
defaults to HTML. Builders can also perform other tasks related to
documentation processing.
By default, everything that is outdated is built. Output only for
selected files can be built by specifying individual filenames.
For a list of available options, refer to sphinx-build
-b.
- -b buildername
- The most important option: it selects a builder. The most common builders
are:
- html
- Build HTML pages. This is the default builder.
- dirhtml
- Build HTML pages, but with a single directory per document. Makes for
prettier URLs (no .html) if served from a webserver.
- singlehtml
- Build a single HTML with the whole content.
- htmlhelp,
qthelp, devhelp, epub
- Build HTML files with additional information for building a documentation
collection in one of these formats.
- applehelp
- Build an Apple Help Book. Requires hiutil and codesign,
which are not Open Source and presently only available on Mac OS X 10.6
and higher.
- latex
- Build LaTeX sources that can be compiled to a PDF document using
pdflatex.
- man
- Build manual pages in groff format for UNIX systems.
- texinfo
- Build Texinfo files that can be processed into Info files using
makeinfo.
- text
- Build plain text files.
- gettext
- Build gettext-style message catalogs (.pot files).
- doctest
- Run all doctests in the documentation, if the doctest extension is
enabled.
- linkcheck
- Check the integrity of all external links.
- xml
- Build Docutils-native XML files.
- pseudoxml
- Build compact pretty-printed "pseudo-XML" files displaying the
internal structure of the intermediate document trees.
See /usage/builders/index for a list of all builders shipped with
Sphinx. Extensions can add their own builders.
- -M buildername
- Alternative to -b. Uses the Sphinx make_mode module, which
provides the same build functionality as a default Makefile or
Make.bat. In addition to all Sphinx /usage/builders/index, the
following build pipelines are available:
- latexpdf
- Build LaTeX files and run them through pdflatex, or as per
latex_engine setting. If language is set to 'ja',
will use automatically the platex/dvipdfmx latex to PDF
pipeline.
- info
- Build Texinfo files and run them through makeinfo.
IMPORTANT:
Sphinx only recognizes the -M option if it is
placed first.
New in version 1.2.1.
- -a
- If given, always write all output files. The default is to only write
output files for new and changed source files. (This may not apply to all
builders.)
- -E
- Don't use a saved environment (the structure caching all
cross-references), but rebuild it completely. The default is to only read
and parse source files that are new or have changed since the last
run.
- -t tag
- Define the tag tag. This is relevant for only directives
that only include their content if this tag is set.
New in version 0.6.
- -d path
- Since Sphinx has to read and parse all source files before it can write an
output file, the parsed source files are cached as "doctree
pickles". Normally, these files are put in a directory called
.doctrees under the build directory; with this option you can
select a different cache directory (the doctrees can be shared between all
builders).
- -j N
- Distribute the build over N processes in parallel, to make building
on multiprocessor machines more effective. Note that not all parts and not
all builders of Sphinx can be parallelized. If auto argument is
given, Sphinx uses the number of CPUs as N.
New in version 1.2: This option should be considered
experimental.
Changed in version 1.7: Support auto argument.
- -c path
- Don't look for the conf.py in the source directory, but use the
given configuration directory instead. Note that various other files and
paths given by configuration values are expected to be relative to the
configuration directory, so they will have to be present at this location
too.
New in version 0.3.
- -C
- Don't look for a configuration file; only take options via the -D
option.
New in version 0.5.
- -D setting=value
- Override a configuration value set in the conf.py file. The value
must be a number, string, list or dictionary value.
For lists, you can separate elements with a comma like this:
-D html_theme_path=path1,path2.
For dictionary values, supply the setting name and key like
this: -D latex_elements.docclass=scrartcl.
For boolean values, use 0 or 1 as the value.
Changed in version 0.6: The value can now be a dictionary
value.
Changed in version 1.3: The value can now also be a list
value.
- -A name=value
- Make the name assigned to value in the HTML templates.
New in version 0.5.
- -n
- Run in nit-picky mode. Currently, this generates warnings for all missing
references. See the config value nitpick_ignore for a way to
exclude some references as "known missing".
- -N
- Do not emit colored output.
- -v
- Increase verbosity (loglevel). This option can be given up to three times
to get more debug logging output. It implies -T.
New in version 1.2.
- -q
- Do not output anything on standard output, only write warnings and errors
to standard error.
- -Q
- Do not output anything on standard output, also suppress warnings. Only
errors are written to standard error.
- -w file
- Write warnings (and errors) to the given file, in addition to standard
error.
- -W
- Turn warnings into errors. This means that the build stops at the first
warning and sphinx-build exits with exit status 1.
- --keep-going
- With -W option, keep going processing when getting warnings to the end of
build, and sphinx-build exits with exit status 1.
New in version 1.8.
- -T
- Display the full traceback when an unhandled exception occurs. Otherwise,
only a summary is displayed and the traceback information is saved to a
file for further analysis.
New in version 1.2.
- -P
- (Useful for debugging only.) Run the Python debugger, pdb, if an
unhandled exception occurs while building.
You can also give one or more filenames on the command line after
the source and build directories. Sphinx will then try to build only these
output files (and their dependencies).
The sphinx-build refers following environment
variables:
- MAKE
- A path to make command. A command name is also allowed.
sphinx-build uses it to invoke sub-build process on make-mode.
Makefile Options
The Makefile and make.bat files created by
sphinx-quickstart usually run sphinx-build only with the
-b and -d options. However, they support the following
variables to customize behavior:
- PAPER
- This sets the 'papersize' key of latex_elements: i.e.
PAPER=a4 sets it to 'a4paper' and PAPER=letter to
'letterpaper'.
NOTE:
Usage of this environment variable got broken at Sphinx
1.5 as a4 or letter ended up as option to LaTeX document in
place of the needed a4paper, resp. letterpaper. Fixed at
1.7.7.
- SPHINXBUILD
- The command to use instead of sphinx-build.
- BUILDDIR
- The build directory to use instead of the one chosen in
sphinx-quickstart.
- SPHINXOPTS
- Additional options for sphinx-build. These options can also be set
via the shortcut variable O (capital 'o').
If any deprecation warning like RemovedInSphinxXXXWarning
are displayed when building a user's document, some Sphinx extension is
using deprecated features. In that case, please report it to author of the
extension.
To disable the deprecation warnings, please set
PYTHONWARNINGS= environment variable to your environment. For
example:
- PYTHONWARNINGS= make html (Linux/Mac)
- export PYTHONWARNINGS= and do make html (Linux/Mac)
- set PYTHONWARNINGS= and do make html (Windows)
- modify your Makefile/make.bat and set the environment variable
2007-2021, Georg Brandl and the Sphinx team