HTML2MARKDOWN(1)

💖 html2markdown — the girl who turns HTML into markdown 💖

okay bestie, sit down, because this little icon html2markdown is about to become your new obsession. she's a User Commands girlie, she lives in section 1 of your manual, and she takes a whole page of HTML and just... slays it into markdown. no cap. ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

html2markdown — converts a page of HTML into markdown.

that's it. that's the whole vibe. she takes the HTML, she gives you the markdown. 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

html2markdown [options...] [(filename|url) [encoding]]

so you can hand her options, and optionally a filename or a url, and optionally an encoding. all the brackets are her way of saying "these parts are optional, babe, no pressure". 🌸

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so here's the tea. html2markdown downloads the HTML page you specified and converts it into text marked up with markdown. main character behaviour, honestly.

the source HTML page can be either:

• a local file, or
• a remote URL.

and if you don't specify anything at all? she just reads from standard input. lowkey generous of her. the output gets printed to standard output, obviously. 👑

now the encoding situation, because this part actually matters, bestie:

• if an encoding is specified, it will override any encoding info the HTTP Server tries to give you. you're in charge, periodt.
• when an encoding is not specified, python-feedparser will be used to determine the source encoding — if it's available.
• if it's not available, or if you're reading local files, then the encoding is assumed to be UTF-8.

not me reminding you that python-feedparser is doing the detective work when it can. if it can't, UTF-8 is the fallback. that's the rule. 🫶

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

this is the good part. so many little switches to play with. go off. 🍓

• --no-wrap-links — don't wrap long links. let them breathe, let them be long, it's fine.
• --ignore-emphasis — don't include any formatting for emphasis. the drama is gone, unfortunately.
• --reference-links — use reference style links instead of in-line links. very academic of you.
• --ignore-links — don't include any formatting for links. no links, no problems.
• --protect-links — protect links from line breaks surrounding them by wrapping them with angle brackets. safety first, bestie. 🛡️
• --ignore-images — don't include any formatting for images.
• --images-to-alt — discard the image data and only keep the alt text. minimalism, but make it iconic.
• --images-with-size — write image tags that have height and width attrs as raw html, so the dimensions stay intact. keeping the receipts, fr fr.
• -g, --google-doc — convert an html-exported Google Document. yes, that specific thing. she knows.
• -d, --dash-unordered-list — use a dash rather than a star for unordered list items. a dash girlie, noted.
• -e, --asterisk-emphasis — use an asterisk rather than an underscore for emphasized text. asterisk supremacy, honestly.
• -b BODY_WIDTH, --body-width=BODY_WIDTH — number of characters per output line, and 0 means no wrap at all. zero = unhinged, free, unwrapped. 😌
• -i LIST_INDENT, --google-list-indent=LIST_INDENT — the number of pixels Google indents nested lists. very specific, very Google.
• -s, --hide-strikethrough — hide strike-through text. only relevant when -g is specified as well, so don't get confused. 🙈
• --escape-all — escape all special characters. the output is less readable, but it avoids corner case formatting issues. trade-off queen.
• --bypass-tables — format tables in HTML rather than Markdown syntax.
• --ignore-tables — ignore table-related tags (table, th, td, tr) while keeping the rows. so the rows stay, the table-ness doesn't.
• --single-line-break — use a single line break after a block element rather than two line breaks.

NOTE: requires --body-width=0. do not skip this. she will not work otherwise.

• --unicode-snob — use unicode throughout the document. as you should. ✨
• --no-automatic-links — do not use automatic links wherever applicable.
• --no-skip-internal-links — do not skip internal links. keep them. all of them.
• --links-after-para — put links after each paragraph instead of at the end of the document.
• --mark-code — mark program code blocks with [code]...[/code].
• --default-image-alt=TEXT — the default alt string for images that are missing one. give your mystery images a name, bestie. 🎀
• --pad-tables — pad the cells to equal column width in tables. symmetry. aesthetics. we love it.
• --decode-errors=DECODE_ERRORS — what to do in case of decode errors. the acceptable values are ignore, strict, and replace. pick your fighter.
• --version — show the program's version number and exit.
• -h, --help — show a help message and exit. the classic. the icon. the one we all press first. 💅

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🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

this manpage was written for Debian by Stefano Rivera <stefanor@debian.org>.

we love a credited author. thank you Stefano, you ate. 🫶

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⭐ the sign-off ⭐

okay so this was html2markdown, version 2015.6.21, from way back in July 2015 — she's vintage, she's timeless, she's still converting HTML into markdown like the queen she is. 👑

now go convert something. go be the main character of your own terminal. bye bestie!! 💖✨🎀🦋🌸