Expand on the pickle builder.

doc/builders.rst

@@ -34,10 +34,12 @@ The builder's "name" must be given to the **-b** command-line option of
 
    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.
+   postprocessing tool) that doesn't use the standard HTML templates.  It also
+   is the format used by the Sphinx Web application.
 
-   It also is the format used by the Sphinx Web application.  Its name is
-   ``pickle``.  (The old name ``web`` still works as well.)
+   See :ref:`pickle-details` for details about the output format.
+
+   Its name is ``pickle``.  (The old name ``web`` still works as well.)
 
 .. class:: LaTeXBuilder
 
@@ -71,3 +73,76 @@ Built-in Sphinx extensions that offer more builders are:
 
 * :mod:`~sphinx.ext.doctest`
 * :mod:`~sphinx.ext.coverage`
+
+
+.. _pickle-details:
+
+Pickle builder details
+----------------------
+
+The builder outputs one pickle file per source file, and a few special files.
+It also copies the reST source files in the directory ``_sources`` under the
+output directory.
+
+The files per source file have the extensions ``.fpickle``, and are arranged in
+directories just as the source files are.  They unpickle to a dictionary 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:
+
+``environment.pickle``
+   The build environment.  (XXX add important environment properties)
+
+``globalcontext.pickle``
+   A pickled dict with these keys:
+
+   ``project``, ``copyright``, ``release``, ``version``
+      The same values as given in the configuration file.
+
+   ``style``, ``use_modindex``
+      :confval:`html_style` and :confval:`html_use_modindex`, respectively.
+
+   ``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.
+
+``searchindex.pickle``
+   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.

doc/ext/builderapi.rst

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+.. _writing-builders:
+
 Writing new builders
 ====================
 

doc/templating.rst

@@ -8,6 +8,24 @@ templates.  Jinja is a text-based engine, and inspired by Django templates, so
 anyone having used Django will already be familiar with it.  It also has
 excellent documentation for those who need to make themselves familiar with it.
 
+
+Do I need to use Sphinx' templates to produce HTML?
+---------------------------------------------------
+
+No.  You have several other options:
+
+* You can :ref:`write a custom builder <writing-builders>` that derives from
+  :class:`~sphinx.builder.StandaloneHTMLBuilder` and calls your template engine
+  of choice.
+
+* You can use the :class:`~sphinx.builder.PickleHTMLBuilder` that produces
+  pickle files with the page contents, and postprocess them using a custom tool,
+  or use them in your Web application.
+
+
+Jinja/Sphinx Templating Primer
+------------------------------
+
 The most important concept in Jinja is :dfn:`template inheritance`, which means
 that you can overwrite only specific blocks within a template, customizing it
 while also keeping the changes at a minimum.