sphinx/doc/intro.rst

Introduction
============

This is the documentation for the Sphinx documentation builder.  Sphinx is a
tool that translates a set of reStructuredText_ source files into various output
formats, automatically producing cross-references, indices, etc.  That is, if
you have a directory containing a bunch of reST-formatted documents (and
possibly subdirectories of docs in there as well), Sphinx can generate a
nicely-organized arrangement of HTML files (in some other directory) for easy
browsing and navigation.  But from the same source, it can also generate a PDF
file using LaTeX.

The focus is on hand-written documentation, rather than auto-generated API docs.
Though there is support for that kind of documentation as well (which is
intended to be freely mixed with hand-written content), if you need pure API
docs have a look at `Epydoc <http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/>`_, which also
understands reST.

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

.. _rinohtype: https://github.com/brechtm/rinohtype
.. _Write the docs: http://www.writethedocs.org/guide/writing/beginners-guide-to-docs/

Conversion from other systems
-----------------------------

This section is intended to collect helpful hints for those wanting to migrate
to reStructuredText/Sphinx from other documentation systems.

* Gerard Flanagan has written a script to convert pure HTML to reST; it can be
  found at the `Python Package Index <https://pypi.org/project/html2rest/>`_.

* For converting the old Python docs to Sphinx, a converter was written which
  can be found at `the Python SVN repository
  <https://svn.python.org/projects/doctools/converter/>`_.  It contains generic
  code to convert Python-doc-style LaTeX markup to Sphinx reST.

* Marcin Wojdyr has written a script to convert Docbook to reST with Sphinx
  markup; it is at `GitHub <https://github.com/wojdyr/db2rst>`_.

* Christophe de Vienne wrote a tool to convert from Open/LibreOffice documents
  to Sphinx: `odt2sphinx <https://pypi.org/project/odt2sphinx/>`_.

* To convert different markups, `Pandoc <https://pandoc.org/>`_ is
  a very helpful tool.


Use with other systems
----------------------

See the :ref:`pertinent section in the FAQ list <usingwith>`.


Prerequisites
-------------

Sphinx needs at least **Python 3.5** to run.
It also depends on 3rd party libraries such as docutils_ and jinja2_, but they
are automatically installed when sphinx is installed.

.. _reStructuredText: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
.. _docutils: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/
.. _Jinja2: http://jinja.pocoo.org/


Usage
-----

See :doc:`/usage/quickstart` for an introduction.  It also contains links to
more advanced sections in this manual for the topics it discusses.