jarn.viewdoc 3.0

Python documentation viewer

viewdoc is a Python package documentation viewer. It converts reST-formatted text to HTML and displays it in a browser window. The viewer is typically used to check a package’s long description before uploading it to PyPI.

Contents

• Installation

• Usage

• Options

• Arguments

• Configuration

• Related

• Changelog

Installation

viewdoc works with Python >= 3.8 and all recent versions of setuptools.

Use pip install jarn.viewdoc to install the viewdoc script.

Since version 3.0 viewdoc uses PEP420 namespace packages. Please upgrade all jarn.* packages.

Usage

viewdoc [options] [rst-file|egg-dir]

Options

-s style, --style=style, or --style

Select the custom style added to the HTML output.

-b browser, --browser=browser

Select the browser used for display. For a list of names see the webbrowser module.

-c config-file, --config-file=config-file

Use config-file instead of the default ~/.viewdoc.

-l, --list-styles

List available styles and exit.

-h, --help

Print the help message and exit.

-v, --version

Print the version string and exit.

--no-color

Disable output colors.

--no-browser

Print HTML to stdout.

Arguments

rst-file

The reST file to view.

egg-dir

The Python package whose long description to view. Defaults to the current working directory.

Configuration

viewdoc reads style information from its configuration file ~/.viewdoc. Edit this file to add your own styles.

Built-in Styles

plain

Browser default with margins.

pypi

New PyPI style with Google Fonts.

sans

PyPI-like style without Google Fonts (the default).

Related

Also see our Python package releaser jarn.mkrelease.

Changelog

3.0 - 2026-04-17

• Support Python 3.8 - 3.14. [stefan]

• Support setuptools >= 80.0.0. [stefan]

• Switch to PEP420 namespace packages. Please upgrade all jarn.* packages. [stefan]

• Replace pkg_resources with importlib.metadata. [stefan]

• Remove deprecated license classifier. [stefan]

2.7 - 2023-09-23

• Support Python 2.7 - 3.12. [stefan]

• Update tox.ini for latest tox. [stefan]

• Filter deprecated config warning. [stefan]

• Fix invalid escape sequences. [stefan]

• Fix tests for docutils >= 0.20.0. [stefan]

2.6 - 2023-01-21

• Support setuptools >= 65.6.0. [stefan]

2.5 - 2022-11-13

• Support Python 2.7 - 3.11. [stefan]

• Do not require setup.py or setup.cfg if pyproject.toml exists. [stefan]

• Filter some deprecation warnings. [stefan]

• Warn if long_description metadata is missing. [stefan]

2.4 - 2022-02-26

• Support Python 2.7 - 3.10. [stefan]

• Fix code block background color in pypi style. [stefan]

• Keep links underlined in pypi style. [stefan]

• Add output colors. [stefan]

• Do not require setup.py if setup.cfg exists. [stefan]

• Move metadata to setup.cfg. [stefan]

• Move tests out of jarn.viewdoc namespace. [stefan]

• Include tests in sdist but not in wheel. [stefan]

2.3 - 2019-01-28

• Support python -m jarn.viewdoc. [stefan]

2.2 - 2019-01-25

• Drop Python 2.6 support, add Python 3.7. [stefan]

• Update styles in light of new PyPI (warehouse). [stefan]

• Default to sans style because new PyPI uses Google Fonts. [stefan]

• Convert dashes to underscores in config parser optionxform. [stefan]

2.1 - 2017-10-06

• Add MANIFEST.in. [stefan]

2.0 - 2017-07-20

• Update pypi stylesheet (grey code blocks). [stefan]

• Automatically upgrade stylesheet information. [stefan]

• Add -b option to specify the browser to use. [stefan]

• Protect against bad or incomplete locale settings. [stefan]

1.8 - 2017-01-30

• Support Python 2.6 - 3.6 without 2to3. [stefan]

1.7 - 2014-03-22

• Update PyPI stylesheet links in the face of new python.org. [stefan]

• Add new pypi style and rename previous one to classic. [stefan]

1.6 - 2013-11-21

• Support Python 3.x. [stefan]

1.5 - 2012-07-11

• Restore Python 2.5 compatibility. [stefan]

1.4 - 2011-11-25

• Warn if ~/.viewdoc has errors instead of raising an exception. [stefan]

1.3 - 2011-10-31

• Be more careful with what we put on the PYTHONPATH. [stefan]

• Add small style to the default config. [stefan]

1.2 - 2011-07-19

• Pass the PYTHONPATH to subprocesses. [stefan]

• Avoid temp file when extracting the long description. [stefan]

• Add -l option to list available styles. [stefan]

• Add –style shortcut for -s style. [stefan]

1.1 - 2011-02-08

• Add -s option to select styles on the command line. [stefan]

• In pypi style, only underline reference links. [stefan]

1.0 - 2010-12-30

• Initial release [stefan]