markdown.rst

Markdown

As of version 0.2.0, markdown (rather than only reStructuredText) can be included inside directives as nested content. While markdown is much easier to write, please note that it is also less powerful. An example is below:

.. argparse::
    :filename: ../test/sample.py
    :func: parser
    :prog: sample
    :markdown:

    Header 1
    ========

    [I'm a link to google](http://www.google.com)

    ## Sub-heading

    ```
    This
     is
      a
      fenced
     code
    block
    ```

The above example renders as follows:

A random paragraph

Heading 1

[I'm a link to google](http://www.google.com)

## Sub heading

` This is a fenced code block`

The CommonMark-py is used internally to parse Markdown. Consequently, only Markdown supported by CommonMark-py will be rendered.

You must explicitly use the :markdown: flag, otherwise all content inside directives will be parsed as reStructuredText.

A note on headers

If the Markdown you nest includes headings, then the first one MUST be level 1. Subsequent headings can be at lower levels and then rendered correctly.

Hard line breaks

Sphinx strips white-space from the end of lines prior to handing it to this package. Because of that, hard line breaks can not currently be rendered.

Replacing/appending/prepending content

When markdown is used as nested content, it's not possible to create dictionary entries like in reStructuredText to modify program option descriptions. This is because CommonMark-py does not support dictionary entries.

MarkDown in program descriptions and option help

In addition to using MarkDown in nested content, one can also use MarkDown directly in program descriptions and option help messages. For example:

import argparse

def blah():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="""
### Example of MarkDown inside programs

[I'm a link](http://www.google.com)
""")
    parser.add_argument('cmd', help='execute a `command`')
    return parser

To render this as MarkDown rather than reStructuredText, use the markdownhelp option:

.. argparse::
    :filename: ../test/sample2.py
    :func: blah
    :prog: sample
    :markdownhelp:

This will then be rendered as: