SPHINX-BUILD(1) Sphinx SPHINX-BUILD(1)
NAME
sphinx-build - Sphinx documentation generator tool
SYNOPSIS
sphinx-build [options] <sourcedir> <outputdir> [filenames ...]
DESCRIPTION
sphinx-build generates documentation from the files in <sourcedir> and
places it in the <outputdir>.
sphinx-build looks for <sourcedir>/conf.py for the configuration set-
tings. sphinx-quickstart(1) may be used to generate template files,
including conf.py.
sphinx-build can create documentation in different formats. A format
is selected by specifying the builder name on the command line; it de-
faults to HTML. Builders can also perform other tasks related to docu-
mentation processing. For a list of available builders, refer to
sphinx-build -b.
By default, everything that is outdated is built. Output only for se-
lected files can be built by specifying individual filenames.
OPTIONS
-b buildername
The most important option: it selects a builder. The most com-
mon builders are:
html Build HTML pages. This is the default builder.
dirhtml
Build HTML pages, but with a single directory per docu-
ment. 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 hiutil and 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 docu-
ment using pdflatex.
man Build manual pages in groff format for UNIX systems.
texinfo
Build Texinfo files that can be processed into Info files
using makeinfo.
text Build plain text files.
gettext
Build gettext-style message catalogs (.pot files).
doctest
Run all doctests in the documentation, if the doctest ex-
tension is enabled.
linkcheck
Check the integrity of all external links.
xml Build Docutils-native XML files.
pseudoxml
Build compact pretty-printed "pseudo-XML" files display-
ing the internal structure of the intermediate document
trees.
See /usage/builders/index for a list of all builders shipped
with Sphinx. Extensions can add their own builders.
-M buildername
Alternative to -b. Uses the Sphinx make_mode module, which pro-
vides the same build functionality as a default Makefile or
Make.bat. In addition to all Sphinx /usage/builders/index, the
following build pipelines are available:
latexpdf
Build LaTeX files and run them through pdflatex, or as
per latex_engine setting. If language is set to 'ja',
will use automatically the platex/dvipdfmx latex to PDF
pipeline.
info Build Texinfo files and run them through makeinfo.
IMPORTANT:
Sphinx only recognizes the -M option if it is placed first.
New in version 1.2.1.
-a If given, always write all output files. The default is to only
write output files for new and changed source files. (This may
not apply to all builders.)
-E Don't use a saved environment (the structure caching all
cross-references), but rebuild it completely. The default is to
only read and parse source files that are new or have changed
since the last run.
-t tag Define the tag tag. This is relevant for only directives that
only include their content if this tag is set.
New in version 0.6.
-d path
Since Sphinx has to read and parse all source files before it
can write an output file, the parsed source files are cached as
"doctree pickles". Normally, these files are put in a directory
called .doctrees under the build directory; with this option you
can select a different cache directory (the doctrees can be
shared between all builders).
-j N Distribute the build over N processes in parallel, to make
building on multiprocessor machines more effective. Note that
not all parts and not all builders of Sphinx can be paral-
lelized. If auto argument is given, Sphinx uses the number of
CPUs as N.
New in version 1.2: This option should be considered experimen-
tal.
Changed in version 1.7: Support auto argument.
-c path
Don't look for the conf.py in the source directory, but use the
given configuration directory instead. Note that various other
files and paths given by configuration values are expected to be
relative to the configuration directory, so they will have to be
present at this location too.
New in version 0.3.
-C Don't look for a configuration file; only take options via the
-D option.
New in version 0.5.
-D setting=value
Override a configuration value set in the conf.py file. The
value must be a number, string, list or dictionary value.
For lists, you can separate elements with a comma like this: -D
html_theme_path=path1,path2.
For dictionary values, supply the setting name and key like
this: -D latex_elements.docclass=scrartcl.
For boolean values, use 0 or 1 as the value.
Changed in version 0.6: The value can now be a dictionary value.
Changed in version 1.3: The value can now also be a list value.
-A name=value
Make the name assigned to value in the HTML templates.
New in version 0.5.
-n Run in nit-picky mode. Currently, this generates warnings for
all missing references. See the config value nitpick_ignore for
a way to exclude some references as "known missing".
-N Do not emit colored output.
-v Increase verbosity (loglevel). This option can be given up to
three times to get more debug logging output. It implies -T.
New in version 1.2.
-q Do not output anything on standard output, only write warnings
and errors to standard error.
-Q Do not output anything on standard output, also suppress warn-
ings. Only errors are written to standard error.
-w file
Write warnings (and errors) to the given file, in addition to
standard error.
-W Turn warnings into errors. This means that the build stops at
the first warning and sphinx-build exits with exit status 1.
--keep-going
With -W option, keep going processing when getting warnings to
the end of build, and sphinx-build exits with exit status 1.
New in version 1.8.
-T Display the full traceback when an unhandled exception occurs.
Otherwise, only a summary is displayed and the traceback infor-
mation is saved to a file for further analysis.
New in version 1.2.
-P (Useful for debugging only.) Run the Python debugger, pdb, if
an unhandled exception occurs while building.
-h, --help, --version
Display usage summary or Sphinx version.
New in version 1.2.
You can also give one or more filenames on the command line after the
source and build directories. Sphinx will then try to build only these
output files (and their dependencies).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The sphinx-build refers following environment variables:
MAKE A path to make command. A command name is also allowed.
sphinx-build uses it to invoke sub-build process on make-mode.
Makefile Options
The Makefile and make.bat files created by sphinx-quickstart usually
run sphinx-build only with the -b and -d options. However, they sup-
port the following variables to customize behavior:
PAPER This sets the 'papersize' key of latex_elements: i.e. PAPER=a4
sets it to 'a4paper' and PAPER=letter to 'letterpaper'.
NOTE:
Usage of this environment variable got broken at Sphinx 1.5
as a4 or letter ended up as option to LaTeX document in place
of the needed a4paper, resp. letterpaper. Fixed at 1.7.7.
SPHINXBUILD
The command to use instead of sphinx-build.
BUILDDIR
The build directory to use instead of the one chosen in
sphinx-quickstart.
SPHINXOPTS
Additional options for sphinx-build. These options can also be
set via the shortcut variable O (capital 'o').
DEPRECATION WARNINGS
If any deprecation warning like RemovedInSphinxXXXWarning are displayed
when building a user's document, some Sphinx extension is using depre-
cated features. In that case, please report it to author of the exten-
sion.
To disable the deprecation warnings, please set PYTHONWARNINGS= envi-
ronment variable to your environment. For example:
• PYTHONWARNINGS= make html (Linux/Mac)
• export PYTHONWARNINGS= and do make html (Linux/Mac)
• set PYTHONWARNINGS= and do make html (Windows)
• modify your Makefile/make.bat and set the environment variable
SEE ALSO
sphinx-quickstart(1)
COPYRIGHT
2007-2021, Georg Brandl and the Sphinx team
4.3.2 Dec 19, 2021 SPHINX-BUILD(1)
Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Sat Jun 13 11:21:30 CEST 2026.