pretext 2.44.1.dev20260712081709

A package to author, build, and deploy PreTeXt projects.

PreTeXt-CLI

A package for authoring and building PreTeXt documents.

• GitHub: https://github.com/PreTeXtBook/pretext-cli/

Documentation and examples for authors/publishers

Most documentation for PreTeXt authors and publishers is available at:

• https://pretextbook.org/doc/guide/html/

Authors and publishers may also find the examples catalog useful as well:

• https://pretextbook.org/examples.html

We have a few notes below (TODO: publish these in the Guide).

Installation

Installing Python

PreTeXt-CLI requires the Python version specified in pyproject.toml.

To check your version, type this into your terminal or command prompt:

python -V

If your version is 2.x, try this instead (and if so, replace all future references to python in these instructions with python3).

python3 -V

If you don't have a compatible Python available, try one of these:

• https://www.python.org/downloads/
  • Windows warning: Be sure to select the option adding Python to your Path.
• https://github.com/pyenv/pyenv#installation (Mac/Linux)
• https://github.com/pyenv-win/pyenv-win#installation (Windows)

Installing PreTeXt-CLI

Once you've confirmed that you're using a valid version of Python, just run (replacing python with python3 if necessary):

python -m pip install --user pretext

(It's possible you will get an error like error: invalid command 'bdist_wheel' — good news, you can ignore it!)

After installation, try to run:

pretext --help

If that works, great! Otherwise, it likely means that Python packages aren't available on your “PATH”. In that case, replace all pretext commands with python -m pretext instead:

python -m pretext --help

Either way, you're now ready to use the CLI, the --help option will explain how to use all the different subcommands like pretext new and pretext build.

External dependencies

We install as much as we can with the pip install command, but depending on your machine you may require some extra software:

• TeXLive
• pdftoppm/Ghostscript

Upgrading PreTeXt-CLI

If you have an existing installation and you want to upgrade to a more recent version, you can run:

python -m pip install --upgrade pretext

Custom XSL

Custom XSL is not encouraged for most authors, but (for example) developers working bleeding-edge XSL from core PreTeXt may want to call XSL different from that which is shipped with a fixed version of the CLI. This may be accomplished by adding an <xsl/> element to your target with a relative (to project.ptx) or absolute path to the desired XSL. (Note: this XSL must only import other XSL files in the same directory or within subdirectories.)

For example:

<target name="html">
  <format>html</format>
  <source>source/main.ptx</source>
  <publication>publication/publication.ptx</publication>
  <output-dir>output/html</output-dir>
  <xsl>../pretext/xsl/pretext-html.xsl</xsl>
</target>

If your custom XSL file needs to import the XSL shipped with the CLI (e.g. pretext-common.xsl), then use a ./core/ prefix in your custom XSL's xsl:import@href as follows:

<xsl:import href="./core/pretext-common.xsl"/>

Similarly, entities.ent may be used:

<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [
    <!ENTITY % entities SYSTEM "./core/entities.ent">
    %entities;
]>

Note: previously this was achieved with a pretext-href attribute - this is now deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

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Using this package as a library/API

We have started documenting how you can use this CLI programmatically in docs/api.md.

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Development

Note. The remainder of this documentation is intended only for those interested in contributing to the development of this project. Anyone who simply wishes to use the PreTeXt-CLI can stop reading here.

From the "Clone or Download" button on GitHub, copy the REPO_URL into the below command to clone the project.

git clone [REPO_URL]
cd pretext-cli

Using a valid Python installation

Developers and contributors need a version of Python matching the requirements in pyproject.toml. You don't need to install this yourself: uv, this project's package/environment manager, can install and manage Python versions for you (see below).

Installing dependencies

The first time you set up your development environment, you should follow these steps:

1. Install uv.

   • https://docs.astral.sh/uv/getting-started/installation/

2. Install dependencies into a virtual environment with this command. uv will automatically download and use a Python version matching pyproject.toml if one isn't already available on your system—no separate pyenv install required.

   uv sync --all-extras
   

3. Fetch a copy of the core pretext library and bundle templates by running

   uv run python scripts/fetch_core.py
   

The last command above should also be run when returning to development after some time, since the core commit you develop against might have changed.

Prefix commands with uv run during development mode so that you execute the development version of pretext-cli rather than the system-installed version.

pretext --version # returns system version
uv run pretext --version # returns version being developed

Alternatively, you can activate the virtual environment that uv sync creates at .venv directly, so you don't have to prefix every command with uv run:

pretext --version # returns system version
source .venv/bin/activate # on Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pretext --version # returns version being developed

If you want to develop against a specific Python version (for example, to reproduce a bug reported against an older version), you can ask uv to use it directly:

uv python install 3.11   # downloads the interpreter if you don't have it
uv sync --all-extras --python 3.11

Updating dependencies

Show instructions

To add dependencies for the package, run

uv add DEPENDENCY-NAME

If someone else has added a dependency:

uv sync --all-extras

Using a local copy of PreTeXtBook/pretext

See docs/core_development.md.

Formatting code before a commit

All .py files are formatted with the black python formatter and checked by flake8. Proper formatting is enforced by checks in the Continuous Integration framework. Before you commit code, you should make sure it is formatted with black and passes flake8 by running the following commands (on linux or mac) from the root project folder (most likely pretext-cli).

uv run black .
uv run flake8

Testing

Sets are contained in tests/. To run all tests:

uv run pytest

To run a specific test, say test_name inside test_file.py:

uv run pytest -k name

Tests are automatically run by GitHub Actions when pushing to identify regressions.

Packaging

To check if a successful build is possible:

uv run python scripts/build_package.py

Releases (both nightly and stable) are handled by the deploy-nightly and deploy-stable GitHub Actions workflows, which bump the version, build the package with uv build, and publish with uv publish. Trigger deploy-stable manually from the Actions tab to cut a release.

Asset generation

Generating assets is complicated. See docs/asset-generation.md

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About

PreTeXt-CLI Team

• Oscar Levin is co-creator and lead developer of PreTeXt-CLI.
• Steven Clontz is co-creator and a regular contributor of PreTeXt-CLI.
• Development of PreTeXt-CLI would not be possible without the frequent contributions of the wider PreTeXt-Runestone Open Source Ecosystem.

A note and special thanks

A pretext package unrelated to the PreTeXtBook.org project was released on PyPI several years ago by Alex Willmer. We are grateful for his willingness to transfer this namespace to us.

As such, versions of this project before 1.0 are released on PyPI under the name pretextbook, while versions 1.0 and later are released as pretext.

About PreTeXt

The development of PreTeXt's core is led by Rob Beezer.