NAME
a2x - convert Asciidoc text file to PDF, XHTML, HTML
Help, ODF, manpage or plain text
SYNOPSIS
a2x [OPTIONS] FILE
DESCRIPTION
A DocBook toolchain wrapper script that
translates an AsciiDoc text file FILE to PDF, XHTML
(single page or chunked), man page, HTML Help or plain text
formats. PDF, XHTML, man page and HTML Help formats are are
generated using the asciidoc(1)/xsltproc(1)/DocBook XSL Stylesheets toolchain. Plain text is
produced by passing asciidoc(1)
generated HTML through lynx(1). The
htmlhelp format option generates .hhp, .hhc and .html files
suitable for compilation to an HTML Help .chm file. Open Document
Text files are generated using docbook2odf(1).
OPTIONS
--asciidoc-opts=ASCIIDOC_OPTS
- Additional asciidoc(1)
options.
--copy
- Copy distributed docbook-xsl CSS stylesheet and the copying of
distributed admonition and navigation icons to their respective
destinations. Applies to xhtml, chunked, htmlhelp formats. The
default behavior is to suppress copying.
-D, --destination-dir=PATH
- Output directory. Defaults to source FILE directory.
-d, --doctype=DOCTYPE
- DocBook document type: article, manpage or
book. Default document type is article unless the
format is manpage (in which case it defaults to
manpage).
-f, --format=FORMAT
- Output format: chunked, htmlhelp, manpage, odt, pdf, text or
xhtml.
-h, --help
- Print command-line syntax and program options to stdout.
--icons
- Use admonition or navigation icon images in output documents.
The default behavior is to use text in place of icons.
--icons-dir=PATH
- A path (relative to destination HTML files) containing
admonition and navigation icons. Defaults to ./images/icons/.
Applies to xhtml, chunked, htmlhelp formats.
-n, --dry-run
- Don't do anything just print what would have been done.
-s, --skip-asciidoc
- Skip asciidoc execution. This is useful for converting DocBook
XML files not derived from AsciiDoc sources. Ignored if
--format=text.
--stylesheet=PATH
- A path (relative to destination HTML files) specifying the
docbook-xsl CSS stylesheet file. Defaults to ./docbook-xsl.css.
Applies to xhtml, chunked, htmlhelp formats.
-v, --verbose
- Print operational details to stderr. A second -v option applies
the verbose option to toolchain commands.
--version
- Print program version to stdout.
--xsltproc-opts=XSLTPROC_OPTS
- Additional xsltproc(1)
options.
OUTPUT FILES
Output files are written to the directory
specified by the --destination-dir option. If no
--destination-dir option is set output files are written to
the source FILE directory.
Output files have the same name as the source FILE but with an
appropriate file name extension: .html for xhtml; .hhp for
htmlhelp; .pdf for pdf; .text for text. By convention manpages have
no .man extension (man page section number only). Chunked HTML
directory names have a .chunked extension; chunked HTML Help
directory names have a .htmlhelp extension.
Same named existing files are overwritten.
Intermediate output files are written to the source FILE
directory and are not automatically deleted.
Intermediate DocBook XML files generated by AsciiDoc are
only regenerated if out of date with respect to the AsciiDoc
source FILE.
In addition to generating HTML files the xhtml, chunked and
htmlhelp formats copy the DocBook XSL stylesheet plus admonition
and navigation icons distributed with AsciiDoc to their
respective destination locations. Existing stylesheets and icons
are only copied if they are newer than the destination files or if
the destination files are missing.
The xhtml format generates a single XHTML output page. The
chunked format writes multiple per-section HTML pages to a chunked
directory in the destination directory. The chunked directory has
the same name as the source FILE name plus a .chunked extension.
EXAMPLES
a2x -f pdf --icons doc/quickstart.txt
- Generates doc/quickstart.pdf with admonition icons.
a2x -f chunked -D ../webpages guide.txt
- Creates chunked directory ../webpages/guide.chunked containing
chunked HTML files. Also copies docbook-xsl.css stylesheet to the
../webpages/guide.chunked directory plus admonition and navigation
icons to the ../webpages/guide.chunked/images/icons
directory.
REQUISITES
This script runs under the bash(1) shell
and requires the following programs (which may or may not be
prepackaged with your Linux distribution):
Asciidoc
-
xsltproc
-
DocBook XSL Stylesheets
-
FOP (for PDF file generation)
-
Lynx (for text file generation)
-
docbook2odf (for Open Document file generation)
- This
version of a2x(1) has been
tested on Ubuntu Linux 5.0.4 with the following toolchain
components:
- *bash 3.00.16.
- *DocBook XSL Stylesheets 1.72.0 (with AsciiDoc drivers
and patches).
- *xsltproc (libxml 20617, libxslt 10112 and libexslt 810).
- *FOP 0.20.5.
- *lynx 2.8.5rel.1.
- *docbook2odf 0.163.
BUGS
- *As of version 0.163 docbook2odf(1)
only processes a subset of DocBook, skipping unimplemented
elements. In particular only book type root elements are recognized
so you may need to use the a2x(1)
--doctype=book option.
- *See also the AsciiDoc distribution BUGS
file.
AUTHOR
Written by Stuart Rackham, <srackham@methods.co.nz>
RESOURCES
SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/asciidoc/
Main web site: http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/
COPYING
Copyright (C) 2002-2007 Stuart Rackham. Free use of
this software is granted under the terms of the GNU General Public
License (GPL).
REFERENCES
- 1.
- srackham@methods.co.nz
- mailto: