mkdocs-run-shell-cmd-plugin 0.1.0

MkDocs plugin to run a specified command or commands and include the output in the generated site.

MkDocs Plugin : run-shell-cmd

This is an MkDocs plugin that runs a specified command (or commands) during the build and serve process and injects the command and output into the generated site in a fenced block.

It's very useful for documenting command-line programs, expecially during development where the command line may change frequently.

See the demo for an example.

• IMPORTANT
• Installation
• Usage
• Configuration
• License
• TODO

IMPORTANT

This plugin allows running arbitrary commands on your system. It does NOT check the command for safety, and it does NOT run the command in a sandbox. However, it does ask you if you want to run each command, and it does allow you to disable all commands from running again for the duration of the session. Also commands are not run using a shell, so your environment variables are not available to the command. Commands are set in the markdown file, so they are not run unless you build, serve or publish the site. If you are using a CI/CD pipeline to generate your docs, you should be aware that some standard commands may be missing or blocked, and the CI will probably hang. Generating the docs on a local machine and then pushing them up to your hosting is probably a better idea.

Installation

Install the package with pip:

pip install mkdocs-run-shell-cmd-plugin

or, if you are using Poetry:

poetry add mkdocs-run-shell-cmd-plugin --group dev

Usage

Activate the plugin in your mkdocs.yml:

plugins:
  - run-shell-cmd

If you have no plugins entry in your config file yet, you'll likely also want to add the search plugin. MkDocs enables it by default if here is no plugins entry set.

To activate the console highlighting you will need to add the following to the markdown_extensions section of your mkdocs.yml:

markdown_extensions:
  - pymdownx.superfences
  - pymdownx.highlight

You will also need the pymdown-extensions and pygments packages installed in your environment, unless you dont want the basic console syntax highlighting similar to GitHub markdown.

Then, in your template, you can use the {{ run-shell-cmd(cmd="my-command") }} command:

# My Project

Below is the output of `my-program --help`:

{{ run-shell-cmd(cmd='my-program --help') }}

The spaces around the tag are optional and it is case insensitive, also you can use either double or single quotes around the command string.

All the below strings have identical output:

{{ run-shell-cmd(cmd='my-program --help') }}
{{ run-shell-cmd(cmd="my-program --help") }}
{{RUN-SHELL-CMD(cmd='my-program --help')}}
{{run-shell-cmd(cmd="my-program --help")}}
{{ run-SHELL-cmd(cmd="my-program --help")}}

When the site is built, the progress will stop for each command discovered, and the user will be asked if it should be run or not :

INFO     -  Building documentation...
INFO     -  Cleaning site directory
"cowsay This works!!!" - Run this command? [(Y)/(N)/(A)lways/(D)isable] [y]: a
INFO     -  Documentation built in 1.91 seconds
INFO     -  [15:31:49] Watching paths for changes: 'docs', 'mkdocs.yml'

You can choose Yes, No, Always, or Disable. If you choose Always, you will never be asked again FOR THIS SESSION and all further commands will be run. If you choose Disable, you will never be asked again FOR THIS SESSION and NO further commands will be run.

There will NEVER be an option to run all commands by default without user choice, as this would be a massive security risk.

Configuration

At this time there are no configuration options. I intend to add at least the following options:

• disable wrapping in a fence
• choose a specific title for the output, it will be the same for all.

License

This is released under the MIT License. See the bundled LICENSE file for more details.

TODO

• Add configuration options
• Add tests
• Find a way to run on CI/CD without prompting the user, but in a safe way that doesn't allow arbitrary commands to be run. We can always check the CI environment variable, but it's still not good practice to run arbitrary code.