a2x(1)
NAME
a2x - convert Asciidoc text file to PDF, XHTML, HTML Help, manpage or
plain text
SYNOPSIS
a2x [OPTIONS] FILE
DESCRIPTION
A DocBook toolchain wrapper script that translates an AsciiDoc text
file FILE to PDF, DVI, PS, LaTeX, 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, dblatex (or FOP) 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.
OPTIONS
- -a, --attribute=ATTRIBUTE
- Set asciidoc(1) attribute value (shortcut for --asciidoc-opts="-a ATTRIBUTE" option). This option may be specified more than once.
- --asciidoc-opts=ASCIIDOC_OPTS
- Additional asciidoc(1) options. This option may be specified more
than once. - --copy
- Copy distributed docbook-xsl CSS stylesheet 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, dvi, htmlhelp, manpage, pdf, ps, tex, 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
- Donīt 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. This option may be specified more
than once. - --fop-opts=FOP_OPTS
- Additional fop options. This option may be specified more than
once. If this option is specified fop is used to generate PDFs. - --dblatex-opts=DBLATEX_OPTS
- Additional dblatex options. This option may be specified more than once.
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 doc/source-highlight-filter.txt
- Generates doc/source-highlight-filter.pdf file.
- 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
- http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/
- xsltproc
http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/- DocBook XSL Stylesheets
http://docbook.sourceforge.net/projects/xsl/- dblatex (for PDF, DVI, PostScript and LaTeX file generation)
http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/- FOP (alternative PDF file generation)
http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/- Lynx (for text file generation)
http://lynx.isc.org/- See also the latest README file.
BUGS
· The odt output format is undocumented and experimental.
· See also the AsciiDoc distribution BUGS file.
AUTHOR
Written by Stuart Rackham, <srackham@gmail.com[1]>
RESOURCES
SourceForge: http://sourceforge.net/projects/asciidoc/
Main web site: http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/
COPYING
Copyright (C) 2002-2008 Stuart Rackham. Free use of this software is
granted under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
NOTES
- 1. srackham@gmail.com
- mailto:srackham@gmail.com