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.. _builders:

======== Builders

.. module:: sphinx.builders :synopsis: Available built-in builder classes.

These are the built-in Sphinx builders. More builders can be added by :doc:extensions </usage/extensions/index>.

The builder's "name" must be given to the -M or -b command-line options of :program:sphinx-build to select a builder.

The most common builders are:

html Build HTML pages. This is the default builder.

dirhtml Build HTML pages, but with a single directory per document. Makes for prettier URLs (no .html) if served from a webserver.

singlehtml Build a single HTML with the whole content.

htmlhelp, qthelp, devhelp, epub Build HTML files with additional information for building a documentation collection in one of these formats.

applehelp Build an Apple Help Book. Requires :program:hiutil and :program:codesign, which are not Open Source and presently only available on Mac OS X 10.6 and higher.

latex Build LaTeX sources that can be compiled to a PDF document using :program:pdflatex.

man Build manual pages in groff format for UNIX systems.

texinfo Build Texinfo files that can be processed into Info files using :program:makeinfo.

text Build plain text files.

gettext Build gettext-style message catalogs (.pot files).

doctest Run all doctests in the documentation, if the :mod:~sphinx.ext.doctest extension is enabled.

linkcheck Check the integrity of all external links.

xml Build Docutils-native XML files.

pseudoxml Build compact pretty-printed "pseudo-XML" files displaying the internal structure of the intermediate document trees.

.. module:: sphinx.builders.html .. class:: StandaloneHTMLBuilder

This is the standard HTML builder. Its output is a directory with HTML files, complete with style sheets and optionally the reStructuredText sources. There are quite a few configuration values that customize the output of this builder, see the chapter :ref:html-options for details.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. module:: sphinx.builders.dirhtml .. class:: DirectoryHTMLBuilder

This is a subclass of the standard HTML builder. Its output is a directory with HTML files, where each file is called index.html and placed in a subdirectory named like its page name. For example, the document markup/rest.rst will not result in an output file markup/rest.html, but markup/rest/index.html. When generating links between pages, the index.html is omitted, so that the URL would look like markup/rest/.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 0.6

.. module:: sphinx.builders.singlehtml .. class:: SingleFileHTMLBuilder

This is an HTML builder that combines the whole project in one output file. (Obviously this only works with smaller projects.) The file is named like the root document. No indices will be generated.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.0

.. module:: sphinxcontrib.htmlhelp .. class:: HTMLHelpBuilder

This builder produces the same output as the standalone HTML builder, but also generates HTML Help support files that allow the Microsoft HTML Help Workshop to compile them into a CHM file.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. module:: sphinxcontrib.qthelp .. class:: QtHelpBuilder

This builder produces the same output as the standalone HTML builder, but also generates Qt help_ collection support files that allow the Qt collection generator to compile them.

.. versionchanged:: 2.0

  Moved to sphinxcontrib.qthelp from sphinx.builders package.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. _Qt help: https://doc.qt.io/qt-4.8/qthelp-framework.html

.. module:: sphinxcontrib.applehelp .. class:: AppleHelpBuilder

This builder produces an Apple Help Book based on the same output as the standalone HTML builder.

If the source directory contains any .lproj folders, the one corresponding to the selected language will have its contents merged with the generated output. These folders will be ignored by all other documentation types.

In order to generate a valid help book, this builder requires the command line tool :program:hiutil, which is only available on Mac OS X 10.6 and above. You can disable the indexing step by setting :confval:applehelp_disable_external_tools to True, in which case the output will not be valid until :program:hiutil has been run on all of the .lproj folders within the bundle.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.3

.. versionchanged:: 2.0

  Moved to sphinxcontrib.applehelp from sphinx.builders package.

.. module:: sphinxcontrib.devhelp .. class:: DevhelpBuilder

This builder produces the same output as the standalone HTML builder, but also generates GNOME Devhelp <https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Devhelp>__ support file that allows the GNOME Devhelp reader to view them.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionchanged:: 2.0

  Moved to sphinxcontrib.devhelp from sphinx.builders package.

.. module:: sphinx.builders.epub3 .. class:: Epub3Builder

This builder produces the same output as the standalone HTML builder, but also generates an epub file for ebook readers. See :ref:epub-faq for details about it. For definition of the epub format, have a look at <https://idpf.org/epub>_ or <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB>_. The builder creates EPUB 3 files.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.4

.. versionchanged:: 1.5

  Since Sphinx 1.5, the epub3 builder is used as the default epub builder.

.. module:: sphinx.builders.latex .. class:: LaTeXBuilder

This builder produces LaTeX source files in the output directory. The actual PDF builds happen inside this output directory and need to be triggered in a second step. This can be done via :program:make all-pdf there. To combine the two steps into only one, use :option:sphinx-build -M (i.e. -M latexpdf not -b latexpdf) or :program:make latexpdf at the project root.

See :confval:latex_documents and the chapter :ref:latex-options for available options.

PDF builds need a sufficiently complete LaTeX installation. The testing is currently (since 5.3.0) done on Ubuntu 22.04LTS, whose LaTeX distribution matches upstream TeXLive 2021 as of 2022/02/04, but PDF builds can be successfully done on much older LaTeX installations.

At any rate, on Ubuntu for example, following packages must all be present:

  • texlive-latex-recommended
  • texlive-fonts-recommended
  • texlive-fonts-extra (needed for fontawesome5, see the 7.4.0 change notice below)
  • tex-gyre (if :confval:latex_engine left to default)
  • texlive-latex-extra
  • latexmk

.. versionchanged:: 4.0.0 TeX Gyre fonts now required for 'pdflatex' engine (default).

.. versionchanged:: 7.4.0 LaTeX package xcolor is now required (it is part of Ubuntu texlive-latex-recommended anyhow). The LaTeX package fontawesome5 is recommended. See the :ref:'sphinxsetup' <latexsphinxsetup> iconpackage key for more.

Additional packages are needed in some circumstances:

  • texlive-lang-cyrillic for Cyrillic (and also then cm-super if using the default fonts),
  • texlive-lang-greek for Greek (and also then cm-super if using the default fonts),
  • texlive-xetex if :confval:latex_engine is 'xelatex',
  • texlive-luatex if :confval:latex_engine is 'lualatex',
  • fonts-freefont-otf if :confval:latex_engine is either 'xelatex' or 'lualatex'.

.. note::

  Since 1.6, ``make latexpdf`` uses on GNU/Linux and macOS
  :program:`latexmk`, as it
  makes sure the needed number of runs is automatically executed.
  On Windows the PDF builds execute a fix number of LaTeX runs
  (three, then ``makeindex``, then two more).

  One can pass to ``latexmk`` options via the ``LATEXMKOPTS``
  Makefile variable. For example:

  .. code-block:: console

     make latexpdf LATEXMKOPTS="-silent"

  reduces console output to a minimum.

  Also, if ``latexmk`` is at version 4.52b or higher (January 2017)
  ``LATEXMKOPTS="-xelatex"`` speeds up PDF builds via XeLateX in case
  of numerous graphics inclusions.

  To pass options directly to the ``(pdf|xe|lua)latex`` binary, use
  variable ``LATEXOPTS``, for example:

  .. code-block:: console

     make latexpdf LATEXOPTS="--halt-on-error"

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

Note that a direct PDF builder is being provided by rinohtype. The builder's name is rinoh. Refer to the rinohtype manual for details.

.. _rinohtype: https://github.com/brechtm/rinohtype .. _rinohtype manual: https://www.mos6581.org/rinohtype/master/quickstart.html#sphinx-builder

.. module:: sphinx.builders.text .. class:: TextBuilder

This builder produces a text file for each reStructuredText file. This is almost the same as the reStructuredText source, but with much of the markup stripped for better readability.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 0.4

.. module:: sphinx.builders.manpage .. class:: ManualPageBuilder

This builder produces manual pages in the groff format. You have to specify which documents are to be included in which manual pages via the :confval:man_pages configuration value.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.0

.. module:: sphinx.builders.texinfo .. class:: TexinfoBuilder

This builder produces Texinfo files that can be processed into Info files by the :program:makeinfo program. You have to specify which documents are to be included in which Texinfo files via the :confval:texinfo_documents configuration value.

The Info format is the basis of the on-line help system used by GNU Emacs and the terminal-based program :program:info. See :ref:texinfo-faq for more details. The Texinfo format is the official documentation system used by the GNU project. More information on Texinfo can be found at <https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/>_.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.1

.. currentmodule:: sphinxcontrib.serializinghtml .. class:: SerializingHTMLBuilder

This builder uses a module that implements the Python serialization API (pickle, simplejson, phpserialize, and others) to dump the generated HTML documentation. The pickle builder is a subclass of it.

A concrete subclass of this builder serializing to the PHP serialization_ format could look like this::

    import phpserialize

    class PHPSerializedBuilder(SerializingHTMLBuilder):
        name = 'phpserialized'
        implementation = phpserialize
        out_suffix = '.file.phpdump'
        globalcontext_filename = 'globalcontext.phpdump'
        searchindex_filename = 'searchindex.phpdump'

.. _PHP serialization: https://pypi.org/project/phpserialize/

.. attribute:: implementation

  A module that implements ``dump()``, ``load()``, ``dumps()`` and ``loads()``
  functions that conform to the functions with the same names from the
  pickle module.  Known modules implementing this interface are
  ``simplejson``, ``phpserialize``, ``plistlib``, and others.

.. attribute:: out_suffix

  The suffix for all regular files.

.. attribute:: globalcontext_filename

  The filename for the file that contains the "global context".  This
  is a dict with some general configuration values such as the name
  of the project.

.. attribute:: searchindex_filename

  The filename for the search index Sphinx generates.

See :ref:serialization-details for details about the output format.

.. versionadded:: 0.5

.. class:: PickleHTMLBuilder

This builder produces a directory with pickle files containing mostly HTML fragments and TOC information, for use of a web application (or custom postprocessing tool) that doesn't use the standard HTML templates.

See :ref:serialization-details for details about the output format.

.. autoattribute:: name

  The old name ``web`` still works as well.

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

The file suffix is .fpickle. The global context is called globalcontext.pickle, the search index searchindex.pickle.

.. class:: JSONHTMLBuilder

This builder produces a directory with JSON files containing mostly HTML fragments and TOC information, for use of a web application (or custom postprocessing tool) that doesn't use the standard HTML templates.

See :ref:serialization-details for details about the output format.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

The file suffix is .fjson. The global context is called globalcontext.json, the search index searchindex.json.

.. versionadded:: 0.5

.. module:: sphinx.builders.gettext .. class:: MessageCatalogBuilder

This builder produces gettext-style message catalogs. Each top-level file or subdirectory grows a single .pot catalog template.

See the documentation on :ref:intl for further reference.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.1

.. module:: sphinx.builders.changes .. class:: ChangesBuilder

This builder produces an HTML overview of all :rst:dir:versionadded, :rst:dir:versionchanged, :rst:dir:deprecated and :rst:dir:versionremoved directives for the current :confval:version. This is useful to generate a changelog file, for example.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. module:: sphinx.builders.dummy .. class:: DummyBuilder

This builder produces no output. The input is only parsed and checked for consistency. This is useful for linting purposes.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.4

.. module:: sphinx.builders.linkcheck .. class:: CheckExternalLinksBuilder

This builder scans all documents for external links, tries to open them with requests, and writes an overview which ones are broken and redirected to standard output and to :file:output.txt in the output directory.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionchanged:: 1.5

  Since Sphinx 1.5, the linkcheck builder uses the requests module.

.. versionchanged:: 3.4

  The linkcheck builder retries links when servers apply rate limits.

.. module:: sphinx.builders.xml .. class:: XMLBuilder

This builder produces Docutils-native XML files. The output can be transformed with standard XML tools such as XSLT processors into arbitrary final forms.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.2

.. class:: PseudoXMLBuilder

This builder is used for debugging the Sphinx/Docutils "Reader to Transform to Writer" pipeline. It produces compact pretty-printed "pseudo-XML", files where nesting is indicated by indentation (no end-tags). External attributes for all elements are output, and internal attributes for any leftover "pending" elements are also given.

.. autoattribute:: name

.. autoattribute:: format

.. autoattribute:: supported_image_types

.. versionadded:: 1.2

Built-in Sphinx extensions that offer more builders are:

  • :mod:~sphinx.ext.doctest
  • :mod:~sphinx.ext.coverage

.. _serialization-details:

Serialization builder details

All serialization builders outputs one file per source file and a few special files. They also copy the reStructuredText source files to the _sources directory under the output directory.

The :class:.PickleHTMLBuilder is a builtin subclass that implements the pickle serialization interface.

The files per source file have the extensions of :attr:~.SerializingHTMLBuilder.out_suffix, and are arranged in directories just as the source files are. They unserialize to a dictionary (or dictionary like structure) with these keys:

body The HTML "body" (that is, the HTML rendering of the source file), as rendered by the HTML translator.

title The title of the document, as HTML (may contain markup).

toc The table of contents for the file, rendered as an HTML <ul>.

display_toc A boolean that is True if the toc contains more than one entry.

current_page_name The document name of the current file.

parents, prev and next Information about related chapters in the TOC tree. Each relation is a dictionary with the keys link (HREF for the relation) and title (title of the related document, as HTML). parents is a list of relations, while prev and next are a single relation.

sourcename The name of the source file under _sources.

The special files are located in the root output directory. They are:

:attr:.SerializingHTMLBuilder.globalcontext_filename A pickled dict with these keys:

project, copyright, release, version The same values as given in the configuration file.

style :confval:html_style.

last_updated Date of last build.

builder Name of the used builder, in the case of pickles this is always 'pickle'.

titles A dictionary of all documents' titles, as HTML strings.

:attr:.SerializingHTMLBuilder.searchindex_filename An index that can be used for searching the documentation. It is a pickled list with these entries:

  • A list of indexed docnames.
  • A list of document titles, as HTML strings, in the same order as the first list.
  • A dict mapping word roots (processed by an English-language stemmer) to a list of integers, which are indices into the first list.

environment.pickle The build environment. This is always a pickle file, independent of the builder and a copy of the environment that was used when the builder was started.

.. todo:: Document common members.

Unlike the other pickle files this pickle file requires that the sphinx package is available on unpickling.