This document has been placed in the public domain.
reStructuredText is plaintext that uses simple and intuitive
constructs to indicate the structure of a document. These constructs
are equally easy to read in raw and processed forms. This document is
itself an example of reStructuredText (raw, if you are reading the
text file, or processed, if you are reading an HTML document, for
example). The reStructuredText parser is a component of Docutils.
Simple, implicit markup is used to indicate special constructs, such
as section headings, bullet lists, and emphasis. The markup used is
as minimal and unobtrusive as possible. Less often-used constructs
and extensions to the basic reStructuredText syntax may have more
elaborate or explicit markup.
reStructuredText is applicable to documents of any length, from the
very small (such as inline program documentation fragments, e.g.
Python docstrings) to the quite large (this document).
The first section gives a quick overview of the syntax of the
reStructuredText markup by example. A complete specification is given
in the Syntax Details section.
Literal blocks (in which no markup processing is done) are used for
examples throughout this document, to illustrate the plaintext markup.
A reStructuredText document is made up of body or block-level
elements, and may be structured into sections. Sections are
indicated through title style (underlines & optional overlines).
Sections contain body elements and/or subsections. Some body elements
contain further elements, such as lists containing list items, which
in turn may contain paragraphs and other body elements. Others, such
as paragraphs, contain text and inline markup elements.
what
Definition lists associate a term with a definition.
how
The term is a one-line phrase, and the definition is one
or more paragraphs or body elements, indented relative to
the term.
:what: Field lists map field names to field bodies, like
database records. They are often part of an extension
syntax.
:how: The field marker is a colon, the field name, and a
colon.
The field body may contain one or more body elements,
indented relative to the field marker.
-a command-line option "a"
-b file options can have arguments
and long descriptions
--long options can be long also
--input=file long options can also have
arguments
/V DOS/VMS-style options too
There must be at least two spaces between the option and the
description.
Literal blocks are either indented or line-prefix-quoted blocks,
and indicated with a double-colon (``::``) at the end of the
preceding paragraph (right here -->)::
if literal_block:
text = 'is left as-is'
spaces_and_linebreaks = 'are preserved'
markup_processing = None
.. Comments begin with two dots and a space. Anything may
follow, except for the syntax of footnotes/citations,
hyperlink targets, directives, or substitution definitions.
Descriptions below list "doctree elements" (document tree element
names; XML DTD generic identifiers) corresponding to syntax
constructs. For details on the hierarchy of elements, please see The
Docutils Document Tree and the Docutils Generic DTD XML document
type definition.
Spaces are recommended for indentation, but tabs may also be used.
Tabs will be converted to spaces. Tab stops are at every 8th column
(processing systems may make this value configurable, Docutils uses the
tab_width configuration setting).
Other whitespace characters (form feeds [chr(12)] and vertical tabs
[chr(11)]) are converted to single spaces before processing.
Blank lines are used to separate paragraphs and other elements.
Multiple successive blank lines are equivalent to a single blank line,
except within literal blocks (where all whitespace is preserved).
Blank lines may be omitted when the markup makes element separation
unambiguous, in conjunction with indentation. The first line of a
document is treated as if it is preceded by a blank line, and the last
line of a document is treated as if it is followed by a blank line.
Any text whose indentation is less than that of the current level
(i.e., unindented text or "dedents") ends the current level of
indentation.
Since all indentation is significant, the level of indentation must be
consistent. For example, indentation is the sole markup indicator for
block quotes:
This is a top-level paragraph.
This paragraph belongs to a first-level block quote.
Paragraph 2 of the first-level block quote.
Multiple levels of indentation within a block quote will result in
more complex structures:
This is a top-level paragraph.
This paragraph belongs to a first-level block quote.
This paragraph belongs to a second-level block quote.
Another top-level paragraph.
This paragraph belongs to a second-level block quote.
This paragraph belongs to a first-level block quote. The
second-level block quote above is inside this first-level
block quote.
When a paragraph or other construct consists of more than one line of
text, the lines must be left-aligned:
This is a paragraph. The lines of
this paragraph are aligned at the left.
This paragraph has problems. The
lines are not left-aligned. In addition
to potential misinterpretation, warning
and/or error messages will be generated
by the parser.
Several constructs begin with a marker, and the body of the construct
must be indented relative to the marker. For constructs using simple
markers (bullet lists, enumerated lists), the level of
indentation of the body is determined by the position of the first
line of text. For example:
- This is the first line of a bullet list
item's paragraph. All lines must align
relative to the first line.
This indented paragraph is interpreted
as a block quote.
Another paragraph belonging to the first list item.
Because it is not sufficiently indented,
this paragraph does not belong to the list
item (it's a block quote following the list).
The body of explicit markup blocks, field lists, and option
lists ends above the first line with the same or less indentation
than the marker. For example, field lists may have very long markers
(containing the field names):
:Hello: This field has a short field name, so aligning the field
body with the first line is feasible.
:Number-of-African-swallows-required-to-carry-a-coconut: It would
be very difficult to align the field body with the left edge
of the first line. It may even be preferable not to begin the
body on the same line as the marker.
The character set universally available to plaintext documents, 7-bit
ASCII, is limited. No matter what characters are used for markup,
they will already have multiple meanings in written text. Therefore
markup characters will sometimes appear in text without being
intended as markup. Any serious markup system requires an escaping
mechanism to override the default meaning of the characters used for
the markup. In reStructuredText we use the backslash, commonly used
as an escaping character in other domains.
A backslash (\) escapes the following character.
"Escaping" backslash characters are represented by NULL characters in
the Document Tree and removed from the output document by the
Docutils writers.
Escaped non-white characters are prevented from playing a role in any
markup interpretation. The escaped character represents the character
itself. (A literal backslash can be specified by two backslashes in a
row -- the first backslash escapes the second. [1])
Escaped whitespace characters are removed from the output document
together with the escaping backslash. This allows for character-level
inline markup.
In URI context [2], backslash-escaped whitespace
represents a single space.
Backslashes have no special meaning in literal context [3].
Here, a single backslash represents a literal backslash, without having
to double up. [1]
Reference names identify elements for cross-referencing.
Simple reference names are single words consisting of alphanumerics
plus isolated (no two adjacent) internal hyphens, underscores,
periods, colons and plus signs; no whitespace or other characters are
allowed. Footnote labels (Footnotes & Footnote References), citation
labels (Citations & Citation References), interpreted text roles,
and some hyperlink references use the simple reference name syntax.
Reference names using punctuation or whose names are phrases (two or
more space-separated words) are called phrase references.
Phrase-references are expressed by enclosing the phrase in backquotes
and treating the backquoted text as a reference name:
Want to learn about `my favorite programming language`_?
.. _my favorite programming language: https://www.python.org
Simple reference names may also optionally use backquotes.
Reference names are whitespace-neutral and case-insensitive. [4]
When resolving reference names internally:
whitespace is normalized (one or more spaces, horizontal or vertical
tabs, newlines, carriage returns, or form feeds, are interpreted as
a single space), and
case is normalized (all alphabetic characters are converted to
lowercase). [4]
Hyperlinks, footnotes, and citations all share the same namespace
for reference names. The labels of citations (simple reference names)
and manually-numbered footnotes (numbers) are entered into the same
database as other hyperlink names. This means that a footnote
(defined as ".. [#note]") which can be referred to by a footnote
reference ([#note]_), can also be referred to by a plain hyperlink
reference (note_). Of course, each type of reference (hyperlink,
footnote, citation) may be processed and rendered differently. Some
care should be taken to avoid reference name conflicts.
References to substitution definitions (substitution references)
use a different namespace.
The top-level element of a parsed reStructuredText document is the
"document" element. After initial parsing, the document element is a
simple container for a document fragment, consisting of body
elements, transitions, and sections, but lacking a document title
or other bibliographic elements. The code that calls the parser may
choose to run one or more optional post-parse transforms,
rearranging the document fragment into a complete document with a
title and possibly other metadata elements (author, date, etc.; see
Bibliographic Fields).
Specifically, there is no special syntax to indicate a document title
and subtitle in reStructuredText. [5]
Instead, a uniquely-adorned top-level section title can be treated as
the document title. Similarly, a uniquely-adorned second-level section
title immediately after the document title can become the document
subtitle. The rest of the sections are then lifted up a level or two.
See A ReStructuredText Primer for examples
and the DocTitle transform for details.
Sections are identified through their titles, which are marked up with
adornment: "underlines" below the title text, or underlines and
matching "overlines" above the title. An underline/overline is a
single repeated punctuation character that begins in column 1 and
forms a line extending at least as far as the right edge of the title
text. [6] Specifically, an underline/overline character may be any
non-alphanumeric printable 7-bit ASCII character [7]. When an
overline is used, the length and character used must match the
underline. Underline-only adornment styles are distinct from
overline-and-underline styles that use the same character. There may
be any number of levels of section titles, although some output
formats may have limits (HTML has 6 levels).
Rather than imposing a fixed number and order of section title
adornment styles, the order enforced will be the order as encountered.
The first style encountered will be an outermost title (like HTML <H1>),
the second style will be a subtitle, the third will be a subsubtitle,
and so on.
Below are examples of section title styles:
===============
Section Title
===============
---------------
Section Title
---------------
Section Title
=============
Section Title
-------------
Section Title
`````````````
Section Title
'''''''''''''
Section Title
.............
Section Title
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Section Title
*************
Section Title
+++++++++++++
Section Title
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When a title has both an underline and an overline, the title text may
be inset, as in the first two examples above. This is merely
aesthetic and not significant. Underline-only title text may not be
inset.
A blank line after a title is optional. All text blocks up to the
next title of the same or higher level are included in a section (or
subsection, etc.).
All section title styles need not be used, nor need any specific
section title style be used. However, a document must be consistent
in its use of section titles: once a hierarchy of title styles is
established, sections must use that hierarchy.
Each section title automatically generates a hyperlink target pointing
to the section. The text of the hyperlink target (the "reference
name") is the same as that of the section title. See Implicit
Hyperlink Targets for a complete description.
Instead of subheads, extra space or a type ornament between
paragraphs may be used to mark text divisions or to signal
changes in subject or emphasis.
(The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition, section 1.80)
Transitions are commonly seen in novels and short fiction, as a gap
spanning one or more lines, with or without a type ornament such as a
row of asterisks. Transitions separate other body elements. A
transition should not begin or end a section or document, nor should
two transitions be immediately adjacent.
The syntax for a transition marker is a horizontal line of 4 or more
repeated punctuation characters. The syntax is the same as section
title underlines without title text. Transition markers require blank
lines before and after:
Para.
----------
Para.
Unlike section title underlines, no hierarchy of transition markers is
enforced, nor do differences in transition markers accomplish
anything. It is recommended that a single consistent style be used.
The processing system is free to render transitions in output in any
way it likes. For example, horizontal rules (<hr>) in HTML output
would be an obvious choice.
Paragraphs consist of blocks of left-aligned text with no markup
indicating any other body element. Blank lines separate paragraphs
from each other and from other body elements. Paragraphs may contain
inline markup.
A text block which begins with a *, +, -, •, ‣, or ⁃,
followed by whitespace, is a bullet list item (a.k.a. "unordered" list
item). List item bodies must be left-aligned and indented relative to
the bullet; the text immediately after the bullet determines the
indentation. For example:
- This is the first bullet list item. The blank line above the
first list item is required; blank lines between list items
(such as below this paragraph) are optional.
- This is the first paragraph in the second item in the list.
This is the second paragraph in the second item in the list.
The blank line above this paragraph is required. The left edge
of this paragraph lines up with the paragraph above, both
indented relative to the bullet.
- This is a sublist. The bullet lines up with the left edge of
the text blocks above. A sublist is a new list so requires a
blank line above and below.
- This is the third item of the main list.
This paragraph is not part of the list.
Here are examples of incorrectly formatted bullet lists:
- This first line is fine.
A blank line is required between list items and paragraphs.
(Warning)
- The following line appears to be a new sublist, but it is not:
- This is a paragraph continuation, not a sublist (since there's
no blank line). This line is also incorrectly indented.
- Warnings may be issued by the implementation.
Enumerated lists (a.k.a. "ordered" lists) are similar to bullet lists,
but use enumerators instead of bullets. An enumerator consists of an
enumeration sequence member and formatting, followed by whitespace.
The following enumeration sequences are recognized:
arabic numerals: 1, 2, 3, ... (no upper limit).
uppercase alphabet characters: A, B, C, ..., Z.
lower-case alphabet characters: a, b, c, ..., z.
uppercase Roman numerals: I, II, III, IV, ..., MMMMCMXCIX (4999).
lowercase Roman numerals: i, ii, iii, iv, ..., mmmmcmxcix (4999).
In addition, the auto-enumerator, #, may be used to automatically
enumerate a list. Auto-enumerated lists may begin with explicit
enumeration, which sets the sequence. Fully auto-enumerated lists use
arabic numerals and begin with 1.
The following formatting types are recognized:
suffixed with a period: 1., A., a., I., i..
surrounded by parentheses: (1), (A), (a), (I), (i).
suffixed with a right-parenthesis: 1), A), a), I), i).
While parsing an enumerated list, a new list will be started whenever:
An enumerator is encountered which does not have the same format and
sequence type as the current list (e.g. 1., (a) produces two
separate lists).
The enumerators are not in sequence (e.g., 1., 3. produces two
separate lists).
It is recommended that the enumerator of the first list item be ordinal-1
(1, A, a, I, or i).
Although other start-values will be recognized, they may not be supported
by the output format. A level-1 [info] system message will be generated
for any list beginning with a non-ordinal-1 enumerator.
Lists using Roman numerals must begin with I/i or a
multi-character value, such as II or XV. Any other
single-character Roman numeral (V, X, L, C, D, M)
will be interpreted as a letter of the alphabet, not as a Roman numeral.
Likewise, lists using letters of the alphabet may not begin with
I/i, since these are recognized as Roman numeral 1.
The second line of each enumerated list item is checked for validity.
This is to prevent ordinary paragraphs from being mistakenly
interpreted as list items, when they happen to begin with text
identical to enumerators. For example, this text is parsed as an
ordinary paragraph:
A. Einstein was a really
smart dude.
However, ambiguity cannot be avoided if the paragraph consists of only
one line. This text is parsed as an enumerated list item:
A. Einstein was a really smart dude.
Examples of nested enumerated lists:
1. Item 1 initial text.
a) Item 1a.
b) Item 1b.
2. a) Item 2a.
b) Item 2b.
Each definition list item contains a term, optional classifiers, and a
definition.
A term is a simple one-line word or phrase. Escape a leading hyphen
to prevent recognition as an option list item.
Optional classifiers may follow the term on the same line, each after
an inline : (space, colon, space).
Inline markup is parsed in the term line before the classifier
delimiters are recognized. A delimiter will only be recognized if it
appears outside of any inline markup.
A definition is a block indented relative to the term, and may
contain multiple paragraphs and other body elements. There may be no
blank line between a term line and a definition block (this
distinguishes definition lists from block quotes). Blank lines are
required before the first and after the last definition list item, but
are optional in-between.
Example:
term 1
Definition 1.
term 2
Definition 2, paragraph 1.
Definition 2, paragraph 2.
term 3 : classifier
Definition 3.
term 4 : classifier one : classifier two
Definition 4.
\-term 5
Without escaping, this would be an option list item.
A definition list may be used in various ways, including:
As a dictionary or glossary. The term is the word itself, a
classifier may be used to indicate the usage of the term (noun,
verb, etc.), and the definition follows.
To describe program variables. The term is the variable name, a
classifier may be used to indicate the type of the variable (string,
integer, etc.), and the definition describes the variable's use in
the program. This usage of definition lists supports the classifier
syntax of Grouch, a system for describing and enforcing a Python
object schema.
Field lists are used as part of an extension syntax, such as options
for directives, or database-like records meant for further
processing. They may also be used for two-column table-like
structures resembling database records (label & data pairs).
Applications of reStructuredText may recognize field names and
transform fields or field bodies in certain contexts. For examples,
see Bibliographic Fields or directive options below or the
"meta" directive.
Field lists are mappings from field names to field bodies, modeled on
RFC822 headers. A field name may consist of any characters, but
colons (:) inside of field names must be backslash-escaped
when followed by whitespace.[8]
Inline markup is parsed in field names, but care must be taken when
using interpreted text with explicit roles in field names: the role
must be a suffix to the interpreted text. Field names are
case-insensitive when further processed or transformed. The field
name, along with a single colon prefix and suffix, together form the
field marker. The field marker is followed by whitespace and the
field body. The field body may contain multiple body elements,
indented relative to the field marker. The first line after the field
name marker determines the indentation of the field body. For
example:
:Date: 2001-08-16
:Version: 1
:Authors: - Me
- Myself
- I
:Indentation: Since the field marker may be quite long, the second
and subsequent lines of the field body do not have to line up
with the first line, but they must be indented relative to the
field name marker, and they must line up with each other.
:Parameter i: integer
The interpretation of individual words in a multi-word field name is
up to the application. The application may specify a syntax for the
field name. For example, second and subsequent words may be treated
as "arguments", quoted phrases may be treated as a single argument,
and direct support for the "name=value" syntax may be added.
Standard RFC822 headers cannot be used for this construct because
they are ambiguous. A word followed by a colon at the beginning of a
line is common in written text. However, in well-defined contexts
such as when a field list invariably occurs at the beginning of a
document (PEPs and email messages), standard RFC822 headers could be
used.
Syntax diagram (simplified):
+--------------------+----------------------+
| ":" field name ":" | field body |
+-------+------------+ |
| (body elements)+ |
+-----------------------------------+
When a field list is the document body's first element [9],
it may have its fields transformed to bibliographic data.
This bibliographic data corresponds to the front matter of a book,
such as the title page and copyright page.
Certain registered field names (listed below) are recognized and
transformed to the corresponding doctree elements, most becoming child
elements of the <docinfo> element. No ordering is required of these
fields, although they may be rearranged to fit the document structure,
as noted. Unless otherwise indicated below, each of the bibliographic
elements' field bodies may contain a single paragraph only. Field
bodies may be checked for RCS keywords and cleaned up. Any
unrecognized fields will remain as generic fields in the docinfo
element.
The registered bibliographic field names and their corresponding
doctree elements are as follows:
a single paragraph consisting of a list of authors, separated by
; or , (; is checked first, so Doe, Jane; Doe, John will work.) [10]
multiple paragraphs (one per author) or
a bullet list whose elements each contain a single paragraph per author.
In some languages (e.g. Swedish), there is no singular/plural distinction
between "Author" and "Authors", so only an "Authors" field is provided,
and a single name is interpreted as an "Author". If a single name
contains a comma, end it with a semicolon to disambiguate:
:Författare: Doe, Jane;.
The "Address" field is for a multi-line surface mailing address.
Newlines and whitespace will be preserved.
The "Dedication" and "Abstract" fields may contain arbitrary body
elements. Only one of each is allowed. They become topic elements
with "Dedication" or "Abstract" titles (or language equivalents)
immediately following the docinfo element.
Unregistered/generic fields may contain one or more paragraphs or
arbitrary body elements. To support custom styling, the field name is
also added to the "classes" attribute value after being converted
into a valid identifier form.
Bibliographic fields recognized by the parser are normally checked
for RCS [11] keywords and cleaned up [12]. RCS keywords may be
entered into source files as "$keyword$", and once stored under RCS,
CVS [13], or SVN [14], they are expanded to "$keyword: expansion text $".
For example, a "Status" field will be transformed to a "status" element:
:Status: $keyword: expansion text $
Processed, the "status" element's text will become simply "expansion
text". The dollar sign delimiters and leading RCS keyword name are
removed.
The RCS keyword processing only kicks in when the field list is in
bibliographic context (first non-comment construct in the document,
after a document title if there is one).
Option lists map a program's command-line options to descriptions
documenting them. For example:
-a Output all.
-c arg Output just arg.
--long Output all day long.
/V A VMS/DOS-style option.
-p This option has two paragraphs in the description.
This is the first.
This is the second.
Blank lines may be omitted between options
(as above) or left in (as here and below).
--very-long-option A VMS-style option. Note the adjustment
for the required two spaces.
--an-even-longer-option
The description can also start on the next line.
-2, --two This option has two variants.
-f FILE, --file=FILE These two options are synonyms; both have
arguments.
-f <[path]file> Option argument placeholders must start with
a letter or be wrapped in angle brackets.
-d <src dest> Angle brackets are also required if an option
expects more than one argument.
There are several types of options recognized by reStructuredText:
Short POSIX options consist of one dash and an option letter.
Long POSIX options consist of two dashes and an option word; some
systems use a single dash.
Old GNU-style "plus" options consist of one plus and an option
letter ("plus" options are deprecated now, their use discouraged).
DOS/VMS options consist of a slash and an option letter or word.
Please note that both POSIX-style and DOS/VMS-style options may be
used by DOS or Windows software. These and other variations are
sometimes used mixed together. The names above have been chosen for
convenience only.
The syntax for short and long POSIX options is based on the syntax
supported by Python's getopt.py module, which implements an option
parser similar to the GNU libc getopt_long() function but with some
restrictions. There are many variant option systems, and
reStructuredText option lists do not support all of them.
Although long POSIX and DOS/VMS option words may be allowed to be
truncated by the operating system or the application when used on the
command line, reStructuredText option lists do not show or support
this with any special syntax. The complete option word should be
given, supported by notes about truncation if and when applicable.
Options may be followed by an argument placeholder, whose role and
syntax should be explained in the description text.
Either a space or an equals sign may be used as a delimiter between long
options and option argument placeholders;
short options (- or + prefix only) use a space or omit the delimiter.
Option arguments may take one of two forms:
Begins with a letter ([a-zA-Z]) and subsequently consists of
letters, numbers, underscores and hyphens ([a-zA-Z0-9_-]).
Begins with an open-angle-bracket (<) and ends with a
close-angle-bracket (>); any characters except angle brackets
are allowed internally.
Multiple option "synonyms" may be listed, sharing a single
description. They must be separated by comma-space.
There must be at least two spaces between the option(s) and the
description (which can also start on the next line). The description
may contain multiple body elements.
The first line after the option marker determines the indentation of the
description. As with other types of lists, blank lines are required
before the first option list item and after the last, but are optional
between option entries.
A paragraph consisting of two colons (::) signifies that the
following text block(s) comprise a literal block. The literal block
must either be indented or quoted (see below). No markup processing
is done within a literal block. It is left as-is, and is typically
rendered in a monospaced typeface:
This is a typical paragraph. An indented literal block follows.
::
for a in [5,4,3,2,1]: # this is program code, shown as-is
print a
print "it's..."
# a literal block continues until the indentation ends
This text has returned to the indentation of the first paragraph,
is outside of the literal block, and is therefore treated as an
ordinary paragraph.
The paragraph containing only :: will be completely removed from the
output; no empty paragraph will remain.
As a convenience, the :: is also recognized at the end of any paragraph.
If immediately preceded by whitespace, both colons will be removed
from the output (this is the "partially minimized" form). When text
immediately precedes the ::, one colon will be removed from the
output, leaving only one colon visible (i.e., :: will be replaced by
:; this is the "fully minimized" form).
In other words, these are all equivalent (please pay attention to the
colons after "Paragraph"):
Expanded form:
Paragraph:
::
Literal block
Partially minimized form:
Paragraph: ::
Literal block
Fully minimized form:
Paragraph::
Literal block
All whitespace (including line breaks, but excluding minimum
indentation for indented literal blocks) is preserved. Blank lines
are required before and after a literal block, but these blank lines
are not included as part of the literal block.
Indented literal blocks are indicated by indentation relative to the
surrounding text (leading whitespace on each line). The minimum
indentation will be removed from each line of an indented literal
block. The literal block need not be contiguous; blank lines are
allowed between sections of indented text. The literal block ends
with the end of the indentation.
Quoted literal blocks are unindented contiguous blocks of text where
each line begins with the same non-alphanumeric printable 7-bit ASCII
character [15]. A blank line ends a quoted literal block. The
quoting characters are preserved in the processed document.
Possible uses include literate programming in Haskell and email
quoting:
John Doe wrote::
>> Great idea!
>
> Why didn't I think of that?
You just did! ;-)
Line blocks are useful for address blocks, verse (poetry, song
lyrics), and unadorned lists, where the structure of lines is
significant. Line blocks are groups of lines beginning with vertical
bar (|) prefixes. Each vertical bar prefix indicates a new line, so
line breaks are preserved. Initial indents are also significant,
resulting in a nested structure. Inline markup is supported.
Continuation lines are wrapped portions of long lines; they begin with
a space in place of the vertical bar. The left edge of a continuation
line must be indented, but need not be aligned with the left edge of
the text above it. A line block ends with a blank line.
This example illustrates continuation lines:
| Lend us a couple of bob till Thursday.
| I'm absolutely skint.
| But I'm expecting a postal order and I can pay you back
as soon as it comes.
| Love, Ewan.
This example illustrates the nesting of line blocks, indicated by the
initial indentation of new lines:
Take it away, Eric the Orchestra Leader!
| A one, two, a one two three four
|
| Half a bee, philosophically,
| must, *ipso facto*, half not be.
| But half the bee has got to be,
| *vis a vis* its entity. D'you see?
|
| But can a bee be said to be
| or not to be an entire bee,
| when half the bee is not a bee,
| due to some ancient injury?
|
| Singing...
Syntax diagram:
+------+-----------------------+
| "| " | line |
+------| continuation line |
+-----------------------+
A text block that is indented relative to the preceding text, without
preceding markup indicating it to be a literal block or other content,
is a block quote. All markup processing (for body elements and inline
markup) continues within the block quote:
This is an ordinary paragraph, introducing a block quote.
"It is my business to know things. That is my trade."
-- Sherlock Holmes
A block quote may end with an attribution: a text block beginning with
--, ---, or a true em-dash, flush left within the block quote. If
the attribution consists of multiple lines, the left edges of the
second and subsequent lines must align.
Multiple block quotes may occur consecutively if terminated with
attributions.
Unindented paragraph.
Block quote 1.
—Attribution 1
Block quote 2.
Empty comments may be used to explicitly terminate preceding
constructs that would otherwise consume a block quote:
* List item.
..
Block quote 3.
Empty comments may also be used to separate block quotes:
Block quote 4.
..
Block quote 5.
Blank lines are required before and after a block quote, but these
blank lines are not included as part of the block quote.
Doctest blocks are interactive Python sessions cut-and-pasted into
docstrings. They are meant to illustrate usage by example, and
provide an elegant and powerful testing environment via the doctest
module in the Python standard library.
Doctest blocks are text blocks which begin with the Python interactive
interpreter main prompt (>>> followed by a space) and end with
a blank line. Doctest blocks are treated as a special case of literal
blocks, without requiring the literal block syntax. If both are present,
the literal block syntax takes priority over Doctest block syntax:
This is an ordinary paragraph.
>>> print 'this is a Doctest block'
this is a Doctest block
The following is a literal block::
>>> This is not recognized as a doctest block by
reStructuredText. It *will* be recognized by the doctest
module, though!
ReStructuredText provides two syntax variants for delineating table
cells: Grid Tables and Simple Tables. Tables are also generated by
the "csv-table" and "list-table" directives. The "table" directive
is used to add a table title, caption, or specify options.
As with other body elements, blank lines are required before and after
tables. Tables' left edges should align with the left edge of
preceding text blocks; if indented, the table is considered to be part
of a block quote.
Once isolated, each table cell is treated as a miniature document; the
top and bottom cell boundaries act as delimiting blank lines. Each
cell contains zero or more body elements. Cell contents may include
left and/or right margins, which are removed before processing.
Grid tables provide a complete table representation via grid-like
"ASCII art". Grid tables allow arbitrary cell contents (body
elements), and both row and column spans. However, grid tables can be
cumbersome to produce, especially for simple data sets. The Emacs
table mode is a tool that allows easy editing of grid tables, in
Emacs. See Simple Tables for a simpler (but limited)
representation.
Grid tables are described with a visual grid made up of the characters
-, =, |, and +.
The hyphen (-) is used for horizontal lines (row separators).
The equals sign (=) may be used to separate optional header rows
from the table body (not supported by the Emacs table mode).
The vertical bar (|) is used for vertical lines (column separators).
The plus sign (+) is used for intersections of horizontal and
vertical lines. Example:
Some care must be taken with grid tables to avoid undesired
interactions with cell text in rare cases. For example, the following
table contains a cell in row 2 spanning from column 2 to column 4:
Several solutions are possible. All that is needed is to break the
continuity of the cell outline rectangle. One possibility is to shift
the text by adding an extra space before:
Simple tables provide a compact and easy to type but limited
row-oriented table representation for simple data sets. Cell contents
are typically single paragraphs, although arbitrary body elements may
be represented in most cells. Simple tables allow multi-line rows (in
all but the first column) and column spans, but not row spans. See
Grid Tables above for a complete table representation.
Simple tables are described with horizontal borders made up of = and
- characters. The equals sign (=) is used for top and bottom
table borders, and to separate optional header rows from the table
body. The hyphen (-) is used to indicate column spans in a single
row by underlining the joined columns, and may optionally be used to
explicitly and/or visually separate rows.
A simple table begins with a top border of equals signs with one or
more spaces at each column boundary (two or more spaces recommended).
Regardless of spans, the top border must fully describe all table
columns. There must be at least two columns in the table (to
differentiate it from section headers). The top border may be
followed by header rows, and the last of the optional header rows is
underlined with =, again with spaces at column boundaries. There
may not be a blank line below the header row separator; it would be
interpreted as the bottom border of the table. The bottom boundary of
the table consists of = underlines, also with spaces at column
boundaries. For example, here is a truth table, a three-column table
with one header row and four body rows:
===== ===== =======
A B A and B
===== ===== =======
False False False
True False False
False True False
True True True
===== ===== =======
Underlines of - may be used to indicate column spans by "filling in"
column margins to join adjacent columns. Column span underlines must
be complete (they must cover all columns) and align with established
column boundaries. Text lines containing column span underlines may
not contain any other text. A column span underline applies only to
one row immediately above it. For example, here is a table with a
column span in the header:
===== ===== ======
Inputs Output
------------ ------
A B A or B
===== ===== ======
False False False
True False True
False True True
True True True
===== ===== ======
Each line of text must contain spaces at column boundaries, except
where cells have been joined by column spans. Each line of text
starts a new row, except when there is a blank cell in the first
column. In that case, that line of text is parsed as a continuation
line. For this reason, cells in the first column of new rows (not
continuation lines) must contain some text; blank cells would lead
to a misinterpretation (but see the tip below). Also, this mechanism
limits cells in the first column to only one line of text. Use grid
tables if this limitation is unacceptable.
Underlines of - may also be used to visually separate rows, even if
there are no column spans. This is especially useful in long tables,
where rows are many lines long.
Blank lines are permitted within simple tables. Their interpretation
depends on the context. Blank lines between rows are ignored.
Blank lines within multi-line rows may separate paragraphs or other
body elements within cells.
The rightmost column is unbounded; text may continue past the edge of
the table (as indicated by the table borders). However, it is
recommended that borders be made long enough to contain the entire
text.
The following example illustrates continuation lines (row 2 consists
of two lines of text, and four lines for row 3), a blank line
separating paragraphs (row 3, column 2), text extending past the right
edge of the table, and a new row which will have no text in the first
column in the processed output (row 4):
===== =====
col 1 col 2
===== =====
1 Second column of row 1.
2 Second column of row 2.
Second line of paragraph.
3 - Second column of row 3.
- Second item in bullet
list (row 3, column 2).
\ Row 4; column 1 will be empty.
===== =====
whose first line begins with .. followed by whitespace
(the explicit markup start),
whose second and subsequent lines (if any) are indented
relative to the first, and
which ends before an unindented line.
Explicit markup blocks are analogous to field list items.
The maximum common indentation is always removed from the second and
subsequent lines of the block body. Therefore, if the first construct
fits in one line and the indentation of the first and second
constructs should differ, the first construct should not begin on the
same line as the explicit markup start.
Blank lines are required between explicit markup blocks and other
elements, but are optional between explicit markup blocks where
unambiguous.
Each footnote consists of an explicit markup start (.. ),
a left square bracket, the footnote label, a right square bracket, and
whitespace, followed by indented body elements. A footnote label can
be:
a whole decimal number consisting of one or more digits,
The footnote content (body elements) must be consistently indented
and left-aligned. The first body element within a
footnote may often begin on the same line as the footnote label.
However, if the first element fits on one line and the indentation of
the remaining elements differ, the first element must begin on the
line after the footnote label. Otherwise, the difference in
indentation will not be detected.
Footnotes may occur anywhere in the document, not only at the end.
Where and how they appear in the processed output depends on the
processing system.
Here is a manually numbered footnote:
.. [1] Body elements go here.
Each footnote automatically generates a hyperlink target pointing to
itself. The text of the hyperlink target name is the same as that of
the footnote label. Auto-numbered footnotes generate a number as
their footnote label and reference name. See Implicit Hyperlink
Targets for a complete description of the mechanism.
A number sign (#) may be used as the first character of a footnote
label to request automatic numbering of the footnote or footnote
reference.
The first footnote to request automatic numbering is assigned the
label "1", the second is assigned the label "2", and so on (assuming
there are no manually numbered footnotes present; see Mixed Manual
and Auto-Numbered Footnotes below). A footnote which has
automatically received a label "1" generates an implicit hyperlink
target with name "1", just as if the label was explicitly specified.
A footnote may specify a label explicitly while at the same time
requesting automatic numbering: [#label]. These labels are called
autonumber labels. Autonumber labels do two things:
On the footnote itself, they generate a hyperlink target whose name
is the autonumber label (doesn't include the #).
They allow an automatically numbered footnote to be referred to more
than once, as a footnote reference or hyperlink reference. For
example:
If [#note]_ is the first footnote reference, it will
show up as "[1]". We can refer to it again as [#note]_
and again see "[1]". We can also refer to it as note_
(an ordinary internal hyperlink reference).
.. [#note] This is the footnote labeled "note".
The numbering is determined by the order of the footnotes, not by the
order of the references. For footnote references without autonumber
labels ([#]_), the footnotes and footnote references must be in
the same relative order but need not alternate in lock-step. For
example:
[#]_ is a reference to footnote 1,
and [#]_ is a reference to footnote 2.
.. [#] This is footnote 1.
.. [#] This is footnote 2.
.. [#] This is footnote 3.
[#]_ is a reference to footnote 3.
Special care must be taken if footnotes themselves contain
auto-numbered footnote references, or if multiple references are made
in close proximity. Footnotes and references are noted in the order
they are encountered in the document, which is not necessarily the
same as the order in which a person would read them.
An asterisk (*) may be used for footnote labels to request automatic
symbol generation for footnotes and footnote references. The asterisk
may be the only character in the label. For example:
Here is a symbolic footnote reference: [*]_.
.. [*] This is the footnote.
A transform will insert symbols as labels into corresponding footnotes
and footnote references. The number of references must be equal to
the number of footnotes. One symbol footnote cannot have multiple
references.
The standard Docutils system uses the following symbols for
footnote marks: [16]
asterisk/star (*)
dagger (†, U+02020)
double dagger (‡, U+02021)
section mark (§, U+000A7)
pilcrow or paragraph mark (¶, U+000B6)
number sign (#)
spade suit (♠, U+02660)
heart suit (♥, U+02665)
diamond suit (♦, U+02666)
club suit (♣, U+02663)
If more than ten symbols are required, the same sequence will be
reused, doubled and then tripled, and so on (** etc.).
Manual and automatic footnote numbering may both be used within a
single document, although the results may not be expected. Manual
numbering takes priority. Only unused footnote numbers are assigned
to auto-numbered footnotes. The following example should be
illustrative:
[2]_ will be "2" (manually numbered),
[#]_ will be "3" (anonymous auto-numbered), and
[#label]_ will be "1" (labeled auto-numbered).
.. [2] This footnote is labeled manually, so its number is fixed.
.. [#label] This autonumber-labeled footnote will be labeled "1".
It is the first auto-numbered footnote and no other footnote
with label "1" exists. The order of the footnotes is used to
determine numbering, not the order of the footnote references.
.. [#] This footnote will be labeled "3". It is the second
auto-numbered footnote, but footnote label "2" is already used.
Citations are identical to footnotes except that they use only
non-numeric labels such as [note] or [GVR2001]. Citation
labels are simple reference names (case-insensitive single words
consisting of alphanumerics plus internal hyphens, underscores, and
periods; no whitespace). Citations may be rendered separately and
differently from footnotes. For example:
Here is a citation reference: [CIT2002]_.
.. [CIT2002] This is the citation. It's just like a footnote,
except the label is textual.
These are also called explicit hyperlink targets, to differentiate
them from implicit hyperlink targets defined below.
Hyperlink targets identify a location within or outside of a document,
which may be linked to by hyperlink references.
Hyperlink targets may be named or anonymous. Named hyperlink targets
consist of an explicit markup start (.. ), an underscore,
the reference name (no trailing underscore), a colon, whitespace, and
a link block:
.. _hyperlink-name: link-block
Reference names are whitespace-neutral and case-insensitive. See
Reference Names for details and examples.
Anonymous hyperlink targets consist of an explicit markup start
(.. ), two underscores, a colon, whitespace, and
a link block; there is no reference name:
.. __: anonymous-hyperlink-target-link-block
An alternate syntax for anonymous hyperlinks consists of two
underscores, a space, and a link block:
There are three types of hyperlink targets: internal, external, and
indirect.
Internal hyperlink targets have empty link blocks. They provide
an end point allowing a hyperlink to connect one place to another
within a document. An internal hyperlink target points to the
element following the target. [17] For example:
Clicking on this internal hyperlink will take us to the target_
below.
.. _target:
The hyperlink target above points to this paragraph.
Internal hyperlink targets may be "chained". Multiple adjacent
internal hyperlink targets all point to the same element:
.. _target1:
.. _target2:
The targets "target1" and "target2" are synonyms; they both
point to this paragraph.
If the element "pointed to" is an external hyperlink target (with a
URI in its link block; see #2 below) the URI from the external
hyperlink target is propagated to the internal hyperlink targets;
they will all "point to" the same URI. There is no need to
duplicate a URI. For example, all three of the following hyperlink
targets refer to the same URI:
External hyperlink targets have a URI-reference or email address
in their link blocks. For example, take the following input:
See the Python_ home page for info.
`Write to me`_ with your questions.
.. _Python: https://www.python.org
.. _Write to me: jdoe@example.com
After processing into HTML, the hyperlinks might be expressed as:
See the <a href="https://www.python.org">Python</a> home page
for info.
<a href="mailto:jdoe@example.com">Write to me</a> with your
questions.
An external hyperlink's URI may begin on the same line as the
explicit markup start and target name, or it may begin in an
indented text block immediately following, with no intervening
blank lines. If there are multiple lines in the link block, they
are concatenated. Any unescaped whitespace is removed (whitespace is
permitted to allow for line wrapping). The following external
hyperlink targets are equivalent:
Escaped whitespace is preserved as intentional spaces, e.g.:
.. _reference: ../local\ path\ with\ spaces.html
If an external hyperlink target's URI contains an underscore as its
last character, it must be escaped to avoid being mistaken for an
indirect hyperlink target:
This link_ refers to a file called ``underscore_``.
.. _link: underscore\_
It is possible (although not generally recommended) to include URIs
directly within hyperlink references. See Embedded URIs and Aliases
below.
Indirect hyperlink targets have a hyperlink reference in their
link blocks. In the following example, target "one" indirectly
references whatever target "two" references, and target "two"
references target "three", an internal hyperlink target. In
effect, all three reference the same thing:
.. _one: two_
.. _two: three_
.. _three:
Just as with hyperlink references anywhere else in a document,
if a phrase-reference is used in the link block it must be enclosed
in backquotes. As with external hyperlink targets, the link
block of an indirect hyperlink target may begin on the same line as
the explicit markup start or the next line. It may also be split
over multiple lines, in which case the lines are joined with
whitespace before being normalized.
For example, the following indirect hyperlink targets are
equivalent:
The World Wide Web Consortium recommends in its HTML Techniques
for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines that authors should
"clearly identify the target of each link." Hyperlink references
should be as verbose as possible, but duplicating a verbose hyperlink
name in the target is onerous and error-prone. Anonymous hyperlinks
are designed to allow convenient verbose hyperlink references, and are
analogous to Auto-Numbered Footnotes. They are particularly useful
in short or one-off documents. However, this feature is easily abused
and can result in unreadable plaintext and/or unmaintainable
documents. Caution is advised.
Anonymous hyperlink references are specified with two underscores
instead of one:
See `the web site of my favorite programming language`__.
Anonymous targets begin with .. __:, no reference name is required
or allowed:
.. __: https://www.python.org
As a convenient alternative, anonymous targets may begin with
two underscores only:
__ https://www.python.org
The reference name of the reference is not used to match the reference
to its target. Instead, the order of anonymous hyperlink references
and targets within the document is significant: the first anonymous
reference will link to the first anonymous target. The number of
anonymous hyperlink references in a document must match the number of
anonymous targets. For readability, it is recommended that targets be
kept close to references. Take care when editing text containing
anonymous references; adding, removing, and rearranging references
require attention to the order of corresponding targets.
Directives are an extension mechanism for reStructuredText, a way of
adding support for new constructs without adding new primary syntax
(directives may support additional syntax locally). All standard
directives (those implemented and registered in the reference
reStructuredText parser) are described in the reStructuredText
Directives document, and are always available. Any other directives
are domain-specific, and may require special action to make them
available when processing the document.
For example, the "image" directive is used to include an image:
.. image:: mylogo.jpeg
A graphic with a caption may included with the "figure" directive:
.. figure:: larch.png
The larch.
An "admonition" (note, caution, etc.) contains other body elements:
.. note:: This is a paragraph
- Here is a bullet list.
Directives are indicated by an explicit markup start (.. )
followed by the directive type, two colons, and whitespace (together called
the directive marker). Directive types are case-insensitive single
words (alphanumerics plus isolated internal hyphens, underscores,
plus signs, colons, and periods; no whitespace). Two colons are used
after the directive type for these reasons:
Two colons are distinctive, and unlikely to be used in common text.
Two colons avoids clashes with common comment text like:
.. Danger: modify at your own risk!
If an implementation of reStructuredText does not recognize a
directive (i.e., the directive-handler is not installed), a level-3
(error) system message is generated, and the entire directive block
(including the directive itself) will be included as a literal
block. Thus :: is a natural choice.
The directive block consists of any text on the first line of the
directive after the directive marker, and any subsequent indented
text. The interpretation of the directive block is up to the
directive code. There are three logical parts to the directive block:
Directive arguments.
Directive options.
Directive content.
Individual directives can employ any combination of these parts.
Directive arguments can be filesystem paths, URLs, title text, etc.
Directive options are indicated using field lists; the field names
and contents are directive-specific. Arguments and options must form
a contiguous block beginning on the first or second line of the
directive; a blank line indicates the beginning of the directive
content block. If either arguments and/or options are employed by the
directive, a blank line must separate them from the directive content.
The "figure" directive employs all three parts:
.. figure:: larch.png
:scale: 50
The larch.
Simple directives may not require any content. If a directive that
does not employ a content block is followed by indented text anyway,
it is an error. If a block quote should immediately follow a
directive, use an empty comment in-between (see Comments below).
Actions taken in response to directives and the interpretation of text
in the directive content block or subsequent text block(s) are
directive-dependent. See reStructuredText Directives for details.
Directives are meant for the arbitrary processing of their contents,
which can be transformed into something possibly unrelated to the
original text. It may also be possible for directives to be used as
pragmas, to modify the behavior of the parser, such as to experiment
with alternate syntax. There is no parser support for this
functionality at present; if a reasonable need for pragma directives
is found, they may be supported.
Directives do not generate "directive" elements; they are a parser
construct only, and have no intrinsic meaning outside of
reStructuredText. Instead, the parser will transform recognized
directives into (possibly specialized) document elements. Unknown
directives will trigger level-3 (error) system messages.
Substitution definitions are indicated by an explicit markup start
(.. ) followed by a vertical bar, the substitution text, another
vertical bar, whitespace, and the definition block. Substitution text
may not begin or end with whitespace. A substitution definition block
contains an embedded inline-compatible directive (such as "image" or
"replace") without the leading dots. For example:
The |biohazard| symbol must be used on containers used to
dispose of medical waste.
.. |biohazard| image:: biohazard.png
It is an error for a substitution definition block to directly or
indirectly contain a circular substitution reference.
Substitution references are replaced in-line by the processed
contents of the corresponding definition (linked by matching
substitution text). Matches are case-sensitive but forgiving; if no
exact match is found, a case-insensitive comparison is attempted.
Substitution definitions allow the power and flexibility of
block-level directives to be shared by inline text. They are a way
to include arbitrarily complex inline structures within text, while
keeping the details out of the flow of text. They are the equivalent
of SGML/XML's named entities or programming language macros.
Without the substitution mechanism, every time someone wants an
application-specific new inline structure, they would have to petition
for a syntax change. In combination with existing directive syntax,
any inline structure can be coded without new syntax (except possibly
a new directive).
Syntax diagram:
+-------+-----------------------------------------------------+
| ".. " | "|" substitution text "| " directive type "::" data |
+-------+ directive block |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
The following inline-compatible directives are implemented in Docutils:
Applications may find other use cases for the substitution mechanism.
The following are ideas that have not been implemented in Docutils.
Objects
Substitution references may be used to associate ambiguous text
with a unique object identifier.
For example, many sites may wish to implement an inline "user"
directive:
|Michael| and |Jon| are our widget-wranglers.
.. |Michael| user:: mjones
.. |Jon| user:: jhl
Depending on the needs of the site, this may be used to index the
document for later searching, to hyperlink the inline text in
various ways (mailto, homepage, mouseover Javascript with profile
and contact information, etc.), or to customize presentation of
the text (include username in the inline text, include an icon
image with a link next to the text, make the text bold or a
different color, etc.).
The same approach can be used in documents which frequently refer
to a particular type of objects with unique identifiers but
ambiguous common names. Movies, albums, books, photos, court
cases, and laws are possible. For example:
|The Transparent Society| offers a fascinating alternate view
on privacy issues.
.. |The Transparent Society| book:: isbn=0738201448
Classes or functions, in contexts where the module or class names
are unclear and/or interpreted text cannot be used, are another
possibility:
4XSLT has the convenience method |runString|, so you don't
have to mess with DOM objects if all you want is the
transformed output.
.. |runString| function:: module=xml.xslt class=Processor
Templates
Inline markup may be used for later processing by a template
engine. For example, a Zope author might write:
Arbitrary indented text may be used on the lines following the explicit
markup start:
.. This is a comment
..
_so: is this!
..
[and] this!
..
this:: too!
..
|even| this:: !
.. [this] however, is a citation.
Apart from removing the maximum common indentation, no further processing
is done on the content; a comment contains a single "text blob".
Depending on the output formatter, comments may be removed from the
processed output. In Docutils, the strip_comments configuration setting
triggers the removal of comment elements from the document tree.
An explicit markup start followed by a blank line and nothing else
(apart from whitespace) is an "empty comment". It serves to
terminate a preceding construct, and does not consume any indented
text following. To have a block quote follow a list or any indented
construct, insert an unindented empty comment in-between:
This is
a definition list.
..
This is a block quote.
Implicit hyperlink targets are generated by section titles, footnotes,
and citations, and may also be generated by extension constructs.
Implicit hyperlink targets otherwise behave identically to explicit
hyperlink targets.
Problems of ambiguity due to conflicting duplicate implicit and
explicit reference names are avoided by following this procedure:
Explicit hyperlink targets override any implicit targets having
the same reference name. The implicit hyperlink targets are
removed, and level-1 (info) system messages are inserted.
Duplicate implicit hyperlink targets are removed, and level-1
(info) system messages inserted. For example, if two or more
sections have the same title (such as "Introduction" subsections of
a rigidly-structured document), there will be duplicate implicit
hyperlink targets.
Duplicate explicit hyperlink targets are removed, and level-2
(warning) system messages are inserted. Exception: duplicate
external hyperlink targets (identical hyperlink names and
referenced URIs) do not conflict, and are not removed.
System messages are inserted where target links have been removed.
See "Error Handling" in PEP 258.
The parser must return a set of unique hyperlink targets. The
calling software (such as the Docutils) can warn of unresolvable
links, giving reasons for the messages.
In reStructuredText, inline markup applies to words or phrases within
a text block. The same whitespace and punctuation that serves to
delimit words in written text is used to delimit the inline markup
syntax constructs (see the inline markup recognition rules for
details). The text within inline markup may not begin or end with
whitespace. Arbitrary character-level inline markup is supported
although not encouraged. Inline markup cannot be nested.
There are nine inline markup constructs. Five of the constructs use
identical start-strings and end-strings to indicate the markup:
Inline markup start-strings and end-strings are only recognized if
the following conditions are met:
Inline markup start-strings must be immediately followed by
non-whitespace.
Inline markup end-strings must be immediately preceded by
non-whitespace.
The inline markup end-string must be separated by at least one
character from the start-string.
Both, inline markup start-string and end-string must not be preceded by
an unescaped backslash (except for the end-string of inline literals).
See Escaping Mechanism above for details.
If an inline markup start-string is immediately preceded by one of the
ASCII characters ' " < ( [ { or a similar
non-ASCII character [18], it must not be followed by the
corresponding closing character from ' " > ) ] } or a similar
non-ASCII character [19]. (For quotes, matching characters can
be any of the quotation marks in international usage.)
If the configuration setting character_level_inline_markup is False
(default), additional conditions apply to the characters "around" the
inline markup:
Inline markup start-strings must start a text block or be
immediately preceded by
whitespace,
one of the ASCII characters - : / ' " < ( [ {
or a similar non-ASCII punctuation character. [20]
Inline markup end-strings must end a text block or be immediately
followed by
whitespace,
one of the ASCII characters - . , : ; ! ? \ / ' " ) ] } >
or a similar non-ASCII punctuation character. [21]
The inline markup recognition rules were devised to allow 90% of non-markup
uses of *, `, _, and | without escaping. For example, none
of the following terms are recognized as containing inline markup strings:
2 * x a ** b (* BOM32_* ` `` _ __ | (breaks rule 1)
In most use cases, inline literals or literal blocks are the best
choice (by default, this also selects a monospaced font). Alternatively, the
inline markup characters can be escaped:
For languages that don't use whitespace between words (e.g. Japanese or
Chinese) it is recommended to set character_level_inline_markup to True
and escape inline markup characters in case of non-markup use.
The examples breaking rules 6 and 7 above show which constructs may need
special attention.
Inline markup delimiter characters are used for multiple constructs,
so to avoid ambiguity there must be a specific recognition order for
each character. The inline markup recognition order is as follows:
It is possible to mark up individual characters within a word with
backslash escapes (see Escaping Mechanism above). Backslash
escapes can be used to allow arbitrary text to immediately follow
inline markup:
Python ``list``\s use square bracket syntax.
The backslash will disappear from the processed document. The word
"list" will appear as inline literal text, and the letter "s" will
immediately follow it as normal text, with no space in-between.
Arbitrary text may immediately precede inline markup using
backslash-escaped whitespace:
Possible in *re*\ ``Structured``\ *Text*, though not encouraged.
The backslashes and spaces separating "re", "Structured", and "Text"
above will disappear from the processed document.
Interpreted text is text that is meant to be related, indexed, linked,
summarized, or otherwise processed, but the text itself is typically
left alone. Interpreted text is enclosed by single backquote
characters:
This is `interpreted text`.
The role of the interpreted text determines how the text is
interpreted. The role may be inferred implicitly (as above; the
default role is used) or indicated explicitly, using a role marker.
A role marker consists of a colon, the role name, and another colon.
A role name is a single word consisting of alphanumerics plus isolated
internal hyphens, underscores, plus signs, colons, and periods;
no whitespace or other characters are allowed. A role marker is
either a prefix or a suffix to the interpreted text, whichever reads
better; it's up to the author:
:role:`interpreted text`
`interpreted text`:role:
Interpreted text allows extensions to the available inline descriptive
markup constructs. To emphasis, strong emphasis, inline
literals, and hyperlink references, we can add "title-reference",
"index-entry", "acronym", "class", "red", "blinking" or anything else
we want (as long as it is a simple reference name).
Only pre-determined roles are recognized; unknown roles will
generate errors.
A core set of standard roles is implemented in the
reference parser; see reStructuredText Interpreted Text Roles for
individual descriptions. The "role" directive can be used to define
custom interpreted text roles. In addition, applications may support
specialized roles. The default role (used for interpreted text without
role marker) can be set with the "default-role" directive.
In field lists, care must be taken when using interpreted text with
explicit roles in field names: the role must be a suffix to the
interpreted text. The following are recognized as field list items:
:`field name`:code:: interpreted text with explicit role as suffix
:a `complex`:code:\ field name: a backslash-escaped space
is necessary
The following are not recognized as field list items:
::code:`not a field name`: paragraph with interpreted text
:\ :code:`not a field name`: paragraph with interpreted text
Edge cases:
:field\:`name`: interpreted text (standard role) requires
escaping the leading colon in a field name
:field:\`name`: not interpreted text
Text enclosed by double-backquotes is treated as inline literals:
This text is an example of ``inline literals``.
Inline literals may contain any characters except two adjacent
backquotes in an end-string context (according to the recognition
rules above). No markup interpretation (including backslash-escape
interpretation) is done within inline literals.
Line breaks and sequences of whitespace characters
are not protected in inline literals.
Although a reStructuredText parser will preserve them in its output,
the final representation of the processed document depends on the
output formatter, thus the preservation of whitespace cannot be
guaranteed. If the preservation of line breaks and/or other
whitespace is important, literal blocks should be used.
Inline literals or the :code: role are useful for short code snippets.
For example:
The regular expression ``[+-]?(\d+(\.\d*)?|\.\d+)`` matches
floating-point numbers (without exponents).
Hyperlink references are indicated by a trailing underscore (_)
except for standalone hyperlinks which are recognized
independently. The underscore can be thought of as a right-pointing
arrow. The trailing underscores point away from hyperlink references,
and the leading underscores point toward hyperlink targets.
Hyperlinks consist of two parts:
In the text body, there is a source link, a reference name with a
trailing underscore (or two underscores for anonymous hyperlinks):
See the Python_ home page for info.
A matching target link must exist in the document. It may be embedded
(see below) or exist somewhere else in the document (see Hyperlink
Targets).
Anonymous hyperlinks do not use reference names to match references
to targets, but otherwise behave similarly to named hyperlinks.
A hyperlink reference may directly embed a target URI or an "alias"
hyperlink reference within angle brackets as follows:
See the `Python home page <https://www.python.org>`_ for info.
This `link <Python home page_>`_ is an alias to the link above.
This is exactly equivalent to:
See the `Python home page`_ for info.
This link_ is an alias to the link above.
.. _Python home page: https://www.python.org
.. _link: `Python home page`_
The bracketed URI must be preceded by whitespace and be the last text
before the end string.
With a single trailing underscore, the reference is named -- the
reference name should be unique and may be referred to again.
With two trailing underscores, the reference and target are both
anonymous and the target cannot be referred to again. These are
"one-off" hyperlinks. For example:
`RFC 2396 <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt>`__ and `RFC
2732 <https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2732.txt>`__ together
define the syntax of URIs.
is equivalent to:
`RFC 2396`__ and `RFC 2732`__ together define the syntax of URIs.
__ https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt
__ https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2732.txt
Standalone hyperlinks are treated as URIs, even if they end with an
underscore like in the example of a Python function documentation:
`__init__ <http:example.py.html#__init__>`__
If a target URI that is not recognized as standalone hyperlink happens
to end with an underscore, this needs to be backslash-escaped to avoid
being parsed as hyperlink reference. For example
Use the `source <parrots.rst\_>`__.
creates an anonymous reference to the file parrots.rst_.
If the reference text happens to end with angle-bracketed text that is
not a URI or hyperlink reference, at least one angle-bracket needs to
be backslash-escaped or an escaped space should follow. For example, here
are three references to titles describing a tag:
See `HTML Element: \<a>`_, `HTML Element: <b\> `_, and
`HTML Element: <c>\ `_.
The reference text may also be omitted, in which case the URI will be
duplicated for use as the reference text. This is useful for
URI-references where the address or file name is also the desired
reference text:
See `<a_named_relative_link>`_ or
`<an_anonymous_relative_link>`__ for details.
Inline internal targets are the equivalent of explicit internal
hyperlink targets, but may appear within running text. The syntax
begins with an underscore and a backquote, is followed by a hyperlink
name or phrase, and ends with a backquote. Inline internal targets
may not be anonymous.
For example, the following paragraph contains a hyperlink target named
"Norwegian Blue":
Oh yes, the _`Norwegian Blue`. What's, um, what's wrong with it?
Vertical bars are used to bracket the substitution reference text. A
substitution reference may also be a hyperlink reference by appending
a _ (named) or __ (anonymous) suffix; the substitution text is
used for the reference text in the named case.
The processing system replaces substitution references with the
processed contents of the corresponding substitution definitions
(which see for the definition of "correspond"). Substitution
definitions produce inline-compatible elements.
Examples:
This is a simple |substitution reference|. It will be
replaced by the processing system.
This is a combination |substitution and hyperlink reference|_.
In addition to being replaced, the replacement text or element
will refer to the "substitution and hyperlink reference" target.
A URI [23] or standalone email address within a text block is treated
as a general external hyperlink with the URI rsp. address itself as the
link's text. For example:
See https://www.python.org.
would be marked up in HTML as:
See <a href="https://www.python.org">https://www.python.org</a>.
Two forms of standalone hyperlinks are recognized:
With queries, fragments, and %-escape sequences, URIs can become quite
complicated. A reStructuredText parser must be able to recognize any
URI, as defined in RFC3936.
Standalone email addresses, which are treated as if they were
URIs with a "mailto:" scheme. Example:
someone@somewhere.com
Punctuation at the end of a URI is not considered part of the URI,
unless the URI is terminated by a closing angle bracket (>).
Backslashes may be used in URIs to escape markup characters,
specifically asterisks (*) and underscores (_) which are valid URI
characters (see Escaping Mechanism above).
Measures consist of a positive floating point number in standard
(non-scientific) notation and an optional unit, possibly separated
by one or more spaces.
Measures are only supported where explicitly mentioned in the reference
manuals (directive option values of type "length" or "percentage").
In the document tree, they are stored in attributes of type measure.
It is up to the processing system to provide a fallback/workaround
or raise an error if the output format does not support a unit
(or values without unit).
For the behaviour of the Docutils writers, see the writer documentation.
Comments
<comment>
strip_comments
Explicit markup blocks that are not recognized as citations, directives, footnotes, hyperlink targets, or substitution definitions will be processed as a comment element.
Tip
To ensure that none of the other explicit markup constructs is recognized, leave the .. on a line by itself.
Arbitrary indented text may be used on the lines following the explicit markup start:
Apart from removing the maximum common indentation, no further processing is done on the content; a comment contains a single "text blob". Depending on the output formatter, comments may be removed from the processed output. In Docutils, the strip_comments configuration setting triggers the removal of comment elements from the document tree.
Syntax diagram:
Empty Comments
An explicit markup start followed by a blank line and nothing else (apart from whitespace) is an "empty comment". It serves to terminate a preceding construct, and does not consume any indented text following. To have a block quote follow a list or any indented construct, insert an unindented empty comment in-between: