ASCIIDOC(1)

✨ ASCIIDOC(1): the asciidoc command, bestie ✨

Okay so welcome to the ASCIIDOC(1) manual page 💖 — this is literally the glow-up guide for the asciidoc command, and we’re gonna get through every flag together. No cap, it’s giving “small tool, big main character energy” 🌈.

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✨ NAME ✨

asciidoc — converts an AsciiDoc text file to HTML or DocBook 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

asciidoc [OPTIONS] FILE

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The asciidoc(1) command translates the AsciiDoc text file FILE to DocBook or HTML. If FILE is - then the standard input is used. That’s the vibe check, periodt ✨.

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

Every option, no skips, bestie — this is the whole menu 🫶.

• -a, --attribute=ATTRIBUTE — Define or delete document attribute. ATTRIBUTE is formatted like NAME=VALUE. Command-line attributes take precedence over document and configuration file attributes. Alternate acceptable forms are NAME (the VALUE defaults to an empty string); NAME! (delete the NAME attribute); NAME=VALUE@ (do not override document or configuration file attributes). Values containing spaces should be enclosed in double-quote characters. This option may be specified more than once. A special attribute named trace controls the output of diagnostic information.
• -b, --backend=BACKEND — Backend output file format: docbook45, docbook5, xhtml11, html4, html5, slidy, wordpress or latex (the latex backend is experimental). You can also use the backend alias names html (aliased to xhtml11) or docbook (aliased to docbook45). Defaults to html. The --backend option is also used to manage backend plugins (see PLUGIN COMMANDS).
• -f, --conf-file=CONF_FILE — Use configuration file CONF_FILE. Configuration files processed in command-line order (after implicit configuration files). This option may be specified more than once.
• --doctest — Run Python doctests in asciidoc module.
• -d, --doctype=DOCTYPE — Document type: article, manpage or book. The book document type is only supported by the docbook backends. Default document type is article.
• -c, --dump-conf — Dump configuration to stdout.
• --filter=FILTER — Specify the name of a filter to be loaded (used to load filters that are not auto-loaded). This option may be specified more than once. The --filter option is also used to manage filter plugins (see PLUGIN COMMANDS).
• -h, --help [TOPIC] — Print help TOPIC. --help topics will print a list of help topics, --help syntax summarizes AsciiDoc syntax, --help manpage prints the AsciiDoc manpage.
• -e, --no-conf — Exclude implicitly loaded configuration files except for those named like the input file (infile.conf and infile-backend.conf).
• -s, --no-header-footer — Suppress document header and footer output.
• -o, --out-file=OUT_FILE — Write output to file OUT_FILE. Defaults to the base name of input file with backend extension. If the input is stdin then the outfile defaults to stdout. If OUT_FILE is - then the standard output is used.
• -n, --section-numbers — Auto-number HTML article section titles. Synonym for --attribute numbered.
• --safe — Enable safe mode. Safe mode is disabled by default. AsciiDoc safe mode skips potentially dangerous scripted sections in AsciiDoc source files.
• --theme=THEME — Specify a theme name. Synonym for --attribute theme=THEME. The --theme option is also used to manage theme plugins (see PLUGIN COMMANDS).
• -v, --verbose — Verbosely print processing information and configuration file checks to stderr.
• --version — Print program version number.

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🧚 PLUGIN COMMANDS 🧚

The asciidoc(1) --filter, --backend and --theme options are used to install, remove and list AsciiDoc filter, backend and theme plugins. Syntax:

asciidoc OPTION install ZIP_FILE [PLUGINS_DIR]
asciidoc OPTION remove PLUGIN_NAME [PLUGINS_DIR]
asciidoc OPTION list
asciidoc OPTION build ZIP_FILE PLUGIN_SOURCE

Where:

• OPTION — asciidoc(1) --filter, --backend or --theme option specifying the type of plugin.
• PLUGIN_NAME — A unique plugin name containing only alphanumeric or underscore characters.
• ZIP_FILE — A Zip file containing plugin resources, the name must start with the plugin name e.g. my_filter-1.0.zip packages filter my_filter.
• PLUGINS_DIR — The directory containing installed plugins. Each plugin is contained in its own separate subdirectory which has the same name as the plugin. PLUGINS_DIR defaults to the $HOME/.asciidoc/filters (for filter plugins) or $HOME/.asciidoc/backends (for backend plugins) or $HOME/.asciidoc/themes (for theme plugins).
• PLUGIN_SOURCE — The name of a directory containing the plugin source files or the name of a single source file.

The plugin commands perform as follows:

• install — Create a subdirectory in PLUGINS_DIR with the same name as the plugin then extract the ZIP_FILE into it.
• remove — Delete the PLUGIN_NAME plugin subdirectory and all its contents from the PLUGINS_DIR.
• list — List the names and locations of all installed filter or theme plugins (including standard plugins installed in the global configuration directory).
• build — Create a plugin file named ZIP_FILE containing the files and subdirectories specified by PLUGIN_SOURCE. File and directory names starting with a period are skipped.

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌈

• SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH — If the SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH environment variable is set to a UNIX timestamp, then the {docdate}, {doctime}, {localdate}, and {localtime} attributes are computed in the UTC time zone, with any timestamps newer than SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH replaced by SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH. (This helps software using AsciiDoc to build reproducibly.)

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

Copy these exactly, bestie — they’re literal 💅.

• asciidoc asciidoc_file_name.txt — Simply generate an html file from the asciidoc_file_name.txt that is in current directory using asciidoc.
• asciidoc -b html5 asciidoc_file_name.txt — Use the -b switch to use one of the proposed backend or another one you installed on your computer.
• asciidoc -a data-uri -a icons -a toc -a max-width=55em article.txt — Use the -a switch to set attributes from command-line. AsciiDoc generated its stand-alone HTML user guide containing embedded CSS, JavaScript and images from the AsciiDoc article template with this command.
• asciidoc -b html5 -d manpage asciidoc.1.txt — Generating the asciidoc manpage using the html5 backend.

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⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

• 0 — Success
• 1 — Failure (syntax or usage error; configuration error; document processing failure; unexpected error).

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💀 BUGS 💀

See the AsciiDoc distribution BUGS file.

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

AsciiDoc was originally written by Stuart Rackham. Many people have contributed to it.

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🔥 RESOURCES 🔥

• GitHub: https://github.com/asciidoc/asciidoc-py3/
• Main web site: https://asciidoc.org/

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

a2x(1)

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💖 COPYING 💖

Copyright (C) 2002-2013 Stuart Rackham.

Copyright (C) 2013-2022 AsciiDoc Contributors.

Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

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Cute sign-off 🫶: this is the ASCIIDOC(1) manual page, dated 07/17/2024 — source/version vibes included, periodt ✨💅.