The reStructuredText Cheat Sheet: Syntax Reminders

Paragraphs are flush-left, separated by blank lines.

Block quotes are indented.

Literal block, preceded by "::":

Indented

or:

> Quoted

>>> print 'Doctest block'
Doctest block

Bullet list

• items begin with "-", "+", or "*"

Enumerated list

1. items use any variation of "1.", "A)", and "(i)"

2. also auto-enumerated

Definition list

Term is flush-leftoptional classifier

Definition is indented, no blank line between

Field list

field name:

field body

Option list

-o

at least 2 spaces between option & description

Footnote

Citation

Hyperlink Target

Anonymous Target

Directive ("::")

Substitution Def

Comment

Empty Comment

(".." on a line by itself, with blank lines before & after, used to separate indentation contexts)

attention

Specific admonition; also "caution", "danger", "error", "hint", "important", "note", "tip", "warning"

admonition

Generic titled admonition: .. admonition:: By The Way

image

.. image:: picture.png; many options possible

figure

Like "image", but with optional caption and legend

topic

.. topic:: Title; like a mini section

sidebar

.. sidebar:: Title; like a mini parallel document

parsed-literal

A literal block with parsed inline markup

code

Literal block for code with optional syntax highlighting

math

Mathematical notation (input in LaTeX format)

rubric

.. rubric:: Informal Heading

epigraph

Block quote with class="epigraph"

highlights

Block quote with class="highlights"

pull-quote

Block quote with class="pull-quote"

compound

Compound paragraphs

container

Generic block-level container element

table

Create a titled table

list-table

Create a table from a uniform two-level bullet list

csv-table

Create a table from CSV data

contents

Generate a table of contents

sectnum

Automatically number sections, subsections, etc.

header, footer

Create document decorations

target-notes

Create an explicit footnote for each external target

replace

Replacement text for substitution definitions

unicode

Unicode character code conversion for substitution defs

date

Generates today's date; for substitution defs

include

Read an external reST file as if it were inline

raw

Non-reST data passed untouched to the Writer

class

Set a "class" attribute on the next element

role

Create a custom interpreted text role

default-role

Set the default interpreted text role

meta

Document metadata

title

Set the metadata document title

code

code in a formal language (see docs for syntax highlighting)

emphasis

Equivalent to emphasis

literal

Equivalent to literal but processes backslash escapes

math

Mathematical notation (input in LaTeX format)

PEP

Reference to a numbered Python Enhancement Proposal

RFC

Reference to a numbered Internet Request For Comments

raw

For non-reST data; cannot be used directly (see docs)

strong

Equivalent to strong

sub

Subscript

sup

Superscript

title

Title reference (book, etc.); standard default role