開始使用

Sphinx 是一款文件生成器，能將純文字來源檔轉換為多種輸出格式，並自動生成交叉參照、索引等內容。也就是說，若您有一個包含多個 reStructuredText 或 Markdown 文件的目錄，Sphinx 可生成一系列 HTML 檔案、PDF 檔案（透過 LaTeX）、man 手冊頁等多種格式。

Sphinx focuses on documentation, in particular handwritten documentation, however, Sphinx can also be used to generate blogs, homepages and even books. Much of Sphinx's power comes from the richness of its default plain-text markup format, reStructuredText, along with its significant extensibility capabilities.

The goal of this document is to give you a quick taste of what Sphinx is and how you might use it. When you're done here, you can check out the installation guide followed by the intro to the default markup format used by Sphinx, reStructuredText.

For a great "introduction" to writing docs in general -- the whys and hows, see also Write the docs, written by Eric Holscher.

設定文件來源檔

Sphinx 的純文字文件來源檔集合的根目錄稱為來源目錄。該目錄還包含 Sphinx 組態檔 conf.py，您可以在其中組態 Sphinx 如何讀取來源檔和建置文件的所有面向。 [1]

Sphinx comes with a script called sphinx-quickstart that sets up a source directory and creates a default conf.py with the most useful configuration values from a few questions it asks you. To use this, run:

$ sphinx-quickstart

定義文件結構

Let's assume you've run sphinx-quickstart. It created a source directory with conf.py and a root document, index.rst. The main function of the root document is to serve as a welcome page, and to contain the root of the "table of contents tree" (or toctree). This is one of the main things that Sphinx adds to reStructuredText, a way to connect multiple files to a single hierarchy of documents.

reStructuredText 指示詞

toctree 是一個 reStructuredText 指示詞 <directive>（一種非常靈活的標註）。指示詞可以有引數、選項和內容。

Arguments are given directly after the double colon following the directive's name. Each directive decides whether it can have arguments, and how many.

Options are given after the arguments, in form of a "field list". The maxdepth is such an option for the toctree directive.

Content follows the options or arguments after a blank line. Each directive decides whether to allow content, and what to do with it.

A common gotcha with directives is that the first line of the content must be indented to the same level as the options are.

The toctree directive initially is empty, and looks like so:

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

You add documents listing them in the content of the directive:

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   usage/installation
   usage/quickstart
   ...

This is exactly how the toctree for this documentation looks. The documents to include are given as document names, which in short means that you leave off the file name extension and use forward slashes (/) as directory separators.

另請參見

Read more about the toctree directive.

You can now create the files you listed in the toctree and add content, and their section titles will be inserted (up to the maxdepth level) at the place where the toctree directive is placed. Also, Sphinx now knows about the order and hierarchy of your documents. (They may contain toctree directives themselves, which means you can create deeply nested hierarchies if necessary.)

增添內容

In Sphinx source files, you can use most features of standard reStructuredText. There are also several features added by Sphinx. For example, you can add cross-file references in a portable way (which works for all output types) using the ref role.

For an example, if you are viewing the HTML version, you can look at the source for this document -- use the "Show Source" link in the sidebar.

Todo

Update the below link when we add new guides on these.

另請參見

reStructuredText for a more in-depth introduction to reStructuredText, including markup added by Sphinx.

執行建置

Now that you have added some files and content, let's make a first build of the docs. A build is started with the sphinx-build program:

$ sphinx-build -M html sourcedir outputdir

where sourcedir is the source directory, and outputdir is the directory in which you want to place the built documentation. The -M option selects a builder; in this example Sphinx will build HTML files.

另請參見

Refer to the sphinx-build man page for all options that sphinx-build supports.

You can also build a live version of the documentation that you can preview in the browser. It will detect changes and reload the page any time you make edits. To do so, use sphinx-autobuild to run the following command:

$ sphinx-autobuild source-dir output-dir

However, sphinx-quickstart script creates a Makefile and a make.bat which make life even easier for you. These can be executed by running make with the name of the builder. For example.

$ make html

This will build HTML docs in the build directory you chose. Execute make without an argument to see which targets are available.

我要如何生成 PDF 文件？

make latexpdf runs the LaTeX builder and readily invokes the pdfTeX toolchain for you.

Todo

Move this whole section into a guide on rST or directives

Documenting objects

One of Sphinx's main objectives is easy documentation of objects (in a very general sense) in any domain. A domain is a collection of object types that belong together, complete with markup to create and reference descriptions of these objects.

The most prominent domain is the Python domain. For example, to document Python's built-in function enumerate(), you would add this to one of your source files.

.. py:function:: enumerate(sequence[, start=0])

   Return an iterator that yields tuples of an index and an item of the
   *sequence*. (And so on.)

算繪效果如下：

enumerate(sequence[, start=0])

Return an iterator that yields tuples of an index and an item of the sequence. (And so on.)

The argument of the directive is the signature of the object you describe, the content is the documentation for it. Multiple signatures can be given, each in its own line.

The Python domain also happens to be the default domain, so you don't need to prefix the markup with the domain name.

.. function:: enumerate(sequence[, start=0])

   ...

does the same job if you keep the default setting for the default domain.

There are several more directives for documenting other types of Python objects, for example py:class or py:method. There is also a cross-referencing role for each of these object types. This markup will create a link to the documentation of enumerate().

The :py:func:`enumerate` function can be used for ...

And here is the proof: A link to enumerate().

Again, the py: can be left out if the Python domain is the default one. It doesn't matter which file contains the actual documentation for enumerate(); Sphinx will find it and create a link to it.

Each domain will have special rules for how the signatures can look like, and make the formatted output look pretty, or add specific features like links to parameter types, e.g. in the C/C++ domains.

另請參見

領域 for all the available domains and their directives/roles.

基本組態

Earlier we mentioned that the conf.py file controls how Sphinx processes your documents. In that file, which is executed as a Python source file, you assign configuration values. For advanced users: since it is executed by Sphinx, you can do non-trivial tasks in it, like extending sys.path or importing a module to find out the version you are documenting.

The config values that you probably want to change are already put into the conf.py by sphinx-quickstart and initially commented out (with standard Python syntax: a # comments the rest of the line). To change the default value, remove the hash sign and modify the value. To customize a config value that is not automatically added by sphinx-quickstart, just add an additional assignment.

Keep in mind that the file uses Python syntax for strings, numbers, lists and so on. The file is saved in UTF-8 by default, as indicated by the encoding declaration in the first line.

另請參見

組態 for documentation of all available config values.

Todo

Move this entire doc to a different section

Autodoc

When documenting Python code, it is common to put a lot of documentation in the source files, in documentation strings. Sphinx supports the inclusion of docstrings from your modules with an extension (an extension is a Python module that provides additional features for Sphinx projects) called autodoc.

另請參見

sphinx.ext.autodoc for the complete description of the features of autodoc.

Intersphinx

Many Sphinx documents including the Python documentation are published on the Internet. When you want to make links to such documents from your documentation, you can do it with sphinx.ext.intersphinx.

In order to use intersphinx, you need to activate it in conf.py by putting the string 'sphinx.ext.intersphinx' into the extensions list and set up the intersphinx_mapping config value.

For example, to link to io.open() in the Python library manual, you need to setup your intersphinx_mapping like:

intersphinx_mapping = {'python': ('https://docs.python.org/3', None)}

And now, you can write a cross-reference like :py:func:`io.open`. Any cross-reference that has no matching target in the current documentation set, will be looked up in the documentation sets configured in intersphinx_mapping (this needs access to the URL in order to download the list of valid targets). Intersphinx also works for some other domain's roles including :ref:, however it doesn't work for :doc: as that is non-domain role.

另請參見

sphinx.ext.intersphinx for the complete description of the features of intersphinx.

More topics to be covered

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