mdsphinx 1.3.0

Convert markdown to any output that Sphinx supports

mdsphinx

Convert markdown to any output format that Sphinx supports.

In contrast to something like pandoc, this tool is useful if you want to...

1. Use Jinja2 templating
2. Use MyST Markdown syntax
3. Use other Sphinx extensions.
4. Push Markdown to a Confluence page.

Installation

pipx install mdsphinx

Usage

1. Create a markdown file or directory with markdown files.
2. Run mdsphinx env create to create the default environment.
3. Optionally, create a conf.py.jinja file to customize the Sphinx configuration.
4. Optionally, create a context.yml file with variables to be injected via Jinja2.
5. Run mdsphinx process <inp> --to <out> --using <preset> --as <out> to convert the markdown to the desired output format.

mdsphinx env create
mdsphinx process input.md --to pdf --using latex

You can also process a directory of markdown files.

mdsphinx process ./inputs --to pdf --using latex --as output.pdf

Output Formats

There are a few different formats you can convert to:

mdsphinx process input.md --to pdf        --using latex
mdsphinx process input.md --to html       --using default
mdsphinx process input.md --to confluence --using single.page

Environments

The default environment installs the following packages:

• sphinx
• nbsphinx
• myst-parser
• sphinxcontrib-confluencebuilder

However, you can register any virtual environment you want to use as long as it contains sphinx.

mdsphinx env add --name my_custom_env --path /path/to/my_custom_env
mdsphinx process input.md --to pdf --using latex --env-name my_custom_env

Jinja2 Templating

You can inject values into your markdown files using Jinja2 templating. Simply create a file named context.yml parallel to the input file or directory.

a: 1
b: 2

You can then reference these variables in your markdown files.

{{ a }} + {{ b }} = {{ a + b }}

Sphinx Configuration

You can alter the default Sphinx conf.py file generated by sphinx-quickstart by adding conf.py.jinja parallel to the input file or directory.

{% include main_sphinx_config %}

html_theme = "alabaster"

You can generate a copy of the default conf.py.jinja file.

mdsphinx generate conf.py.jinja

Confluence Configuration

The default Sphinx conf.py tries to set up a confluence connection by reading your ~/.netrc and environment variables.

Sphinx conf.py Variable	Default Source	Environment Variable Name	Example Value
confluence_publish_dryrun	env	CONFLUENCE_PUBLISH_DRYRUN	1
confluence_server_url	env	CONFLUENCE_SERVER_URL	https://example.atlassian.net/wiki
confluence_server_user	netrc[url].login > env	CONFLUENCE_SERVER_USER	[e-mail]
confluence_api_token	netrc[url].password	CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN	api-token
confluence_space_key	env	CONFLUENCE_SPACE_KEY	~MySpace
confluence_parent_page	env	CONFLUENCE_PARENT_PAGE	ParentPage

• Obtain an API token from your Atlassian account settings and configure your ~/.netrc file:

machine <confluence_server_url>
  login <confluence_server_user>
  password <confluence_api_token>

• Create a parent page manually on your confluence space and set your environment variables before running mdsphinx:

export CONFLUENCE_PUBLISH_DRYRUN="0"
export CONFLUENCE_SERVER_URL="https://example.atlassian.net/wiki"
export CONFLUENCE_SPACE_KEY="~MySpace"
export CONFLUENCE_PARENT_PAGE="ParentPage"
mdsphinx process input.md --to confluence --using single.page

LaTeX Configuration

The default LaTeX configuration is set up to use tectonic as the LaTeX engine. However, you can set MDSPHINX_LATEX_COMMAND to be a ; delimited list of commands to run instead.

export MDSPHINX_LATEX_COMMAND="xelatex {tex}"