% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals % John MacFarlane % January 8, 2008
pandoc - general markup converter
pandoc [options] [input-file]...
Pandoc converts files from one markup format to another. It can read markdown and (subsets of) reStructuredText, HTML, and LaTeX, and it can write plain text, markdown, reStructuredText, HTML, LaTeX, ConTeXt, Texinfo, groff man, MediaWiki markup, RTF, OpenDocument XML, ODT, DocBook XML, EPUB, and Slidy or S5 HTML slide shows.
If no input-file is specified, input is read from stdin.
Otherwise, the input-files are concatenated (with a blank
line between each) and used as input. Output goes to stdout by
default (though output to stdout is disabled for the odt and
epub output formats). For output to a file, use the -o option:
pandoc -o output.html input.txtInstead of a file, an absolute URI may be given. In this case pandoc will fetch the content using HTTP:
pandoc -f html -t markdown http://www.fsf.orgThe input and output formats may be specified using command-line options
(see OPTIONS, below, for details). If these formats are not
specified explicitly, Pandoc will attempt to determine them
from the extensions of the input and output filenames. If input comes
from stdin or from a file with an unknown extension, the input is assumed
to be markdown. If no output filename is specified using the -o
option, or if a filename is specified but its extension is unknown,
the output will default to HTML. Thus, for example,
pandoc -o chap1.tex chap1.txtconverts chap1.txt from markdown to LaTeX. And
pandoc READMEconverts README from markdown to HTML.
Pandoc's version of markdown is an extended variant of standard
markdown: the differences are described in the README file in
the user documentation. If standard markdown syntax is desired, the
--strict option may be used.
Pandoc uses the UTF-8 character encoding for both input and output.
If your local character encoding is not UTF-8, you
should pipe input and output through iconv:
iconv -t utf-8 input.txt | pandoc | iconv -f utf-8-f FORMAT, -r FORMAT, --from=FORMAT, --read=FORMAT
: Specify input format. FORMAT can be
native (native Haskell), markdown (markdown or plain text),
rst (reStructuredText), html (HTML), or latex (LaTeX).
If +lhs is appended to markdown, rst, or latex, the input
will be treated as literate Haskell source.
-t FORMAT, -w FORMAT, --to=FORMAT, --write=FORMAT
: Specify output format. FORMAT can be native (native Haskell),
plain (plain text), markdown (markdown), rst (reStructuredText),
html (HTML), latex (LaTeX), context (ConTeXt), man (groff man),
mediawiki (MediaWiki markup), texinfo (GNU Texinfo),
docbook (DocBook XML), opendocument (OpenDocument XML),
odt (OpenOffice text document), epub (EPUB book),
slidy (Slidy HTML and javascript slide show),
s5 (S5 HTML and javascript slide show), or rtf (rich text
format). Note that odt and epub output will not be directed to
stdout; an output filename must be specified using the -o/--output
option. If +lhs is appended to markdown, rst, latex, or html,
the output will be rendered as literate Haskell source.
-s, --standalone : Produce output with an appropriate header and footer (e.g. a standalone HTML, LaTeX, or RTF file, not a fragment).
-o FILE, --output=FILE
: Write output to FILE instead of stdout. If FILE is
`-', output will go to stdout.
-p, --preserve-tabs : Preserve tabs instead of converting them to spaces.
--tab-stop=TABSTOP : Specify tab stop (default is 4).
--strict : Use strict markdown syntax, with no extensions or variants.
--reference-links : Use reference-style links, rather than inline links, in writing markdown or reStructuredText.
-R, --parse-raw : Parse untranslatable HTML codes and LaTeX environments as raw HTML or LaTeX, instead of ignoring them.
-S, --smart
: Use smart quotes, dashes, and ellipses. (This option is significant
only when the input format is markdown. It is selected automatically
when the output format is latex or context.)
-mURL, --latexmathml=URL
: Use LaTeXMathML to display embedded TeX math in HTML output.
To insert a link to a local copy of the LaTeXMathML.js script,
provide a URL. If no URL is provided, the contents of the
script will be inserted directly into the HTML header.
--mathml : Convert TeX math to MathML. In standalone mode, a small javascript will be inserted that allows the MathML to be viewed on some browsers.
--jsmath=URL : Use jsMath to display embedded TeX math in HTML output. The URL should point to the jsMath load script; if provided, it will be linked to in the header of standalone HTML documents.
--gladtex
: Enclose TeX math in <eq> tags in HTML output. These can then
be processed by gladTeX to produce links to images of the typeset
formulas.
--mimetex=URL
: Render TeX math using the mimeTeX CGI script. If URL is not specified,
it is assumed that the script is at /cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi.
--webtex=URL : Render TeX math using an external script. The formula will be concatenated with the URL provided. If URL is not specified, the Google Chart API will be used.
-i, --incremental : Make list items in Slidy or S5 display incrementally (one by one).
--offline : Include all the CSS and javascript needed for a Slidy or S5 slide show in the output, so that the slide show will work even when no internet connection is available.
--xetex : Create LaTeX outut suitable for processing by XeTeX.
-N, --number-sections : Number section headings in LaTeX, ConTeXt, or HTML output. (Default is not to number them.)
--section-divs
: Wrap sections in <div> tags, and attach identifiers to the
enclosing <div> rather than the header itself.
--no-wrap : Disable text wrapping in output. (Default is to wrap text.)
--sanitize-html : Sanitizes HTML (in markdown or HTML input) using a whitelist. Unsafe tags are replaced by HTML comments; unsafe attributes are omitted. URIs in links and images are also checked against a whitelist of URI schemes.
--email-obfuscation=none|javascript|references
: Specify a method for obfuscating mailto: links in HTML documents.
none leaves mailto: links as they are. javascript obfuscates
them using javascript. references obfuscates them by printing their
letters as decimal or hexadecimal character references.
If --strict is specified, references is used regardless of the
presence of this option.
--id-prefix*=string* : Specify a prefix to be added to all automatically generated identifiers in HTML output. This is useful for preventing duplicate identifiers when generating fragments to be included in other pages.
--indented-code-classes*=classes*
: Specify classes to use for indented code blocks--for example,
perl,numberLines or haskell. Multiple classes may be separated
by spaces or commas.
--toc, --table-of-contents : Include an automatically generated table of contents (HTML, markdown, RTF) or an instruction to create one (LaTeX, reStructuredText). This option has no effect on man, DocBook, Slidy, or S5 output.
--base-header-level=LEVEL : Specify the base level for headers (defaults to 1).
--template=FILE
: Use FILE as a custom template for the generated document. Implies
-s. See TEMPLATES below for a description of template syntax. If
this option is not used, a default template appropriate for the
output format will be used. See also -D/--print-default-template.
-V KEY=VAL, --variable=KEY:VAL
: Set the template variable KEY to the value VAL when rendering the
document in standalone mode. This is only useful when the
--template option is used to specify a custom template, since
pandoc automatically sets the variables used in the default
templates.
-c CSS, --css=CSS : Link to a CSS style sheet. CSS is the pathname of the style sheet.
-H FILE, --include-in-header=FILE
: Include contents of FILE at the end of the header. Implies -s.
-B FILE, --include-before-body=FILE
: Include contents of FILE at the beginning of the document body.
Implies -s.
-A FILE, --include-after-body=FILE
: Include contents of FILE at the end of the document body.
Implies -s.
-C FILE, --custom-header=FILE
: Use contents of FILE as the document header. Note: This option is
deprecated. Users should transition to using --template instead.
--reference-odt=filename
: Use the specified file as a style reference in producing an ODT.
For best results, the reference ODT should be a modified version
of an ODT produced using pandoc. The contents of the reference ODT
are ignored, but its stylesheets are used in the new ODT. If no
reference ODT is specified on the command line, pandoc will look
for a file reference.odt in the user data directory (see
--data-dir). If this is not found either, sensible defaults will be
used.
--epub-stylesheet=filename
: Use the specified CSS file to style the EPUB. If no stylesheet
is specified, pandoc will look for a file epub.css in the
user data directory (see --data-dir, below). If it is not
found there, sensible defaults will be used.
--epub-metadata=filename : Look in the specified XML file for metadata for the EPUB. The file should contain a series of Dublin Core elements (http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/), for example:
<dc:rights>Creative Commons</dc:rights>
<dc:language>es-AR</dc:language>
By default, pandoc will include the following metadata elements:
`<dc:title>` (from the document title), `<dc:creator>` (from the
document authors), `<dc:language>` (from the locale), and
`<dc:identifier id="BookId">` (a randomly generated UUID). Any of
these may be overridden by elements in the metadata file.-D FORMAT, --print-default-template=FORMAT
: Print the default template for an output FORMAT. (See -t
for a list of possible FORMATs.)
-T STRING, --title-prefix=STRING : Specify STRING as a prefix to the HTML window title.
--data-dir*=DIRECTORY* : Specify the user data directory to search for pandoc data files. If this option is not specified, the default user data directory will be used:
$HOME/.pandoc
in unix and
C:\Documents And Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\pandoc
in Windows. A `reference.odt`, `epub.css`, `templates` directory,
or `s5` directory placed in this directory will override pandoc's
normal defaults.--dump-args
: Print information about command-line arguments to stdout, then exit.
The first line of output contains the name of the output file specified
with the -o option, or `-' (for stdout) if no output file was
specified. The remaining lines contain the command-line arguments,
one per line, in the order they appear. These do not include regular
Pandoc options and their arguments, but do include any options appearing
after a `--' separator at the end of the line.
This option is intended primarily for use in wrapper scripts.
--ignore-args : Ignore command-line arguments (for use in wrapper scripts). Regular Pandoc options are not ignored. Thus, for example,
pandoc --ignore-args -o foo.html -s foo.txt -- -e latin1
is equivalent to
pandoc -o foo.html -s-v, --version : Print version.
-h, --help : Show usage message.
When the -s/--standalone option is used, pandoc uses a template to
add header and footer material that is needed for a self-standing
document. To see the default template that is used, just type
pandoc --print-default-template=FORMATwhere FORMAT is the name of the output format. A custom template
can be specified using the --template option. You can also override
the system default templates for a given output format FORMAT
by putting a file templates/FORMAT.template in the user data
directory (see --data-dir, below).
Templates may contain variables. Variable names are sequences of
alphanumerics, -, and _, starting with a letter. A variable name
surrounded by $ signs will be replaced by its value. For example,
the string $title$ in
<title>$title$</title>will be replaced by the document title.
To write a literal $ in a template, use $$.
Some variables are set automatically by pandoc. These vary somewhat depending on the output format, but include:
legacy-header
: contents specified by -C/--custom-header
header-includes
: contents specified by -H/--include-in-header (may have multiple
values)
toc
: non-null value if --toc/--table-of-contents was specified
include-before
: contents specified by -B/--include-before-body (may have
multiple values)
include-after
: contents specified by -A/--include-after-body (may have
multiple values)
body
: body of document
title
: title of document, as specified in title block
author
: author of document, as specified in title block (may have
multiple values)
date
: date of document, as specified in title block
Variables may be set at the command line using the -V/--variable
option. This allows users to include custom variables in their
templates.
Templates may contain conditionals. The syntax is as follows:
$if(variable)$
X
$else$
Y
$endif$This will include X in the template if variable has a non-null
value; otherwise it will include Y. X and Y are placeholders for
any valid template text, and may include interpolated variables or other
conditionals. The $else$ section may be omitted.
When variables can have multiple values (for example, author in
a multi-author document), you can use the $for$ keyword:
$for(author)$
<meta name="author" content="$author$" />
$endfor$You can optionally specify a separator to be used between consecutive items:
$for(author)$$author$$sep$, $endfor$markdown2pdf (1).
The README file distributed with Pandoc contains full documentation.
The Pandoc source code and all documentation may be downloaded from http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/.