a2x

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, 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.

OPTIONS

--asciidoc-opts=ASCIIDOC_OPTS: Additional asciidoc(1) options.
-d, --destination-dir=PATH: Output directory. Defaults to source FILE directory.
-f, --format=FORMAT: Output format: chunked, htmlhelp, manpage, pdf, text or xhtml.
-h, --help: Print command-line syntax and program options to stdout.
--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.
--no-copy: Suppress copying of distributed docbook-xsl stylesheets and the copying of distributed admonition and navigation icons to their respective destinations. The default behavior is to copy. Applies to xhtml, chunked, htmlhelp formats.
--no-icons: Don't use admonition or navigation icon images in output documents. This option also suppresses copying of admonition and navigation icons (see also --no-copy). The default behavior is to use icons (although they may or may not be supported by the output format).
--stylesheet=PATH: A path (relative to destination HTML files) specifying the 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 doc/quickstart.txt: Generates doc/quickstart.pdf.
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 scipt 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/
FOP (for PDF file generation): http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/
Lynx (for text file generation): http://lynx.isc.org/

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 1.69.1 (with AsciiDoc drivers and patches).
xsltproc (libxml 20617, libxslt 10112 and libexslt 810).
FOP 0.20.5.
lynx 2.8.5rel.1.

BUGS

See 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/