It is part of Docutils.
To use Restructured Text, you will have to install Python and the docutils package.
docutils can be installed using the commandline:
$ easy_install docutils
If your system has pip, you can use it too:
$ pip install docutils
A simple example of the file syntax:
.. Lines starting with two dots are special commands. But if no command can be found, the line is considered as a comment
=========================================================
Main titles are written using equals signs over and under
=========================================================
Note that each character, including spaces, needs an equals sign above and below.
Titles also use equals signs but are only underneath
====================================================
Subtitles with dashes
---------------------
You can put text in *italic* or in **bold**, you can "mark" text as code with double backquote ``print()``.
Special characters can be escaped using a backslash, e.g. \\ or \*.
Lists are similar to Markdown, but a little more involved.
Remember to line up list symbols (like - or \*) with the left edge of the previous text block, and remember to use blank lines to separate new lists from parent lists:
- First item
- Second item
- Sub item
- Third item
or
* First item
* Second item
* Sub item
* Third item
Tables are really easy to write:
=========== ========
Country Capital
=========== ========
France Paris
Japan Tokyo
=========== ========
More complex tables can be done easily (merged columns and/or rows) but I suggest you to read the complete doc for this :)
There are multiple ways to make links:
- By adding an underscore after a word : Github_ and by adding the target URL after the text (this way has the advantage of not inserting unnecessary URLs in the visible text).
- By typing a full comprehensible URL : https://github.com/ (will be automatically converted to a link)
- By making a more Markdown-like link: `Github <https://github.com/>`_ .
.. _Github: https://github.com/
RST comes with docutils where you have rst2html, for example:
$ rst2html myfile.rst output.html
Applications that use the RST format:
Last modified 07 October 2024