sphinxcontrib.programoutput – Insert command output

Sphinx extension to insert the output of arbitrary commands into documents.

The extension is available under the terms of the BSD license.

Installation

Use pip to install this extension from PyPI:

pip install sphinxcontrib-programoutput

The extension requires Sphinx 1.3 and Python 2.7 or Python 3 at least.

You can now add this extension to extensions:

extensions = ['sphinxcontrib.programoutput']

Now you’ve two new directives program-output and command-output to insert the output of programs.

Usage

To include the output of a command into your document, use the program-output directive provided by this extension:

.. program-output:: python -V

The whole output of python -V, including any messages on standard error, is inserted into the current document, formatted as literal text without any syntax highlighting:

Python 3.11.10

You can omit the content of the standard error stream with the nostderr option.

By default, commands are executed in the top-level source directory. You can choose an alternate working directory with the cwd option. The argument of this option is either a path relative to the current source file, or a absolute path which means that it is relative to the top level source directory.

Usage with MyST (Markdown)

If you are using MyST, the directive would look like:

```{program-output} python -V
---
ellipsis: 2
---
```

Shortening the output

Lengthy output can be shortened with the ellipsis option. Its value denotes lines to omit when inserting the output of the command. Instead, a single ellipsis ... is inserted.

If used with a single number, all lines after the specified line are omitted:

.. program-output:: python --help
   :ellipsis: 2

The above omits all lines after the second one:

usage: python [option] ... [-c cmd | -m mod | file | -] [arg] ...
Options (and corresponding environment variables):
...

Negative numbers count from the last line backwards, thus replacing 2 with -2 in the above example would only omit the last two lines.

If used with two comma-separated line numbers, all lines in between the specified lines are omitted. Again, a negative number counts from the last line backwards:

.. program-output:: python --help
   :ellipsis: 2,-2

The above omits all lines except the first two and the last two lines:

usage: python [option] ... [-c cmd | -m mod | file | -] [arg] ...
Options (and corresponding environment variables):
...
-      : program read from stdin (default; interactive mode if a tty)
arg ...: arguments passed to program in sys.argv[1:]

Mimicking shell input

You can mimic shell input with the command-output directive [1]. This directive inserts the command along with its output into the document:

.. command-output:: python -V

$ python -V
Python 3.11.10

The appearance of this output can be configured with programoutput_prompt_template. When used in conjunction with ellipsis, the command itself and any additional text is never omitted. ellipsis always refers to the immediate output of the command:

.. command-output:: python --help
   :ellipsis: 2

$ python --help
usage: python [option] ... [-c cmd | -m mod | file | -] [arg] ...
Options (and corresponding environment variables):
...

Command execution and shell expansion

Normally the command is split according to the POSIX shell syntax (see shlex), and executed directly. Thus special shell features like expansion of environment variables will not work:

.. command-output:: echo "$USER"

$ echo "$USER"
$USER

To enable these features, enable the shell option. With this option, the command is literally passed to the system shell:

.. command-output:: echo "$USER"
   :shell:

$ echo "$USER"

Other shell features like process expansion consequently work, too:

.. command-output:: ls -l $(which grep)
   :shell:

$ ls -l $(which grep)
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 182728 Mar 23  2022 /usr/bin/grep

Remember to use shell carefully to avoid unintended interpretation of shell syntax and swallowing of fatal errors!

Error handling

If an unexpected exit code (also known as return code) is returned by a command, it is considered to have failed. In this case, a build warning is emitted to help you to detect misspelled commands or similar errors. By default, a command is expected to exit with an exit code of 0, all other codes indicate an error. In some cases however, it may be reasonable to demonstrate failed programs. To avoid a (superfluous) warning in such a case, you can specify the expected return code of a command with the returncode option:

.. command-output:: python -c 'import sys; sys.exit(1)'
   :returncode: 1

The above command returns the exit code 1 (as given to sys.exit()), but no warning will be emitted. On the contrary, a warning will be emitted, should the command return 0!

Note

Upon fatal errors which even prevent the execution of the command neither return code nor command output are available. In this case an error message is inserted into the document instead.

If shell is set however, most of these fatal errors are handled by the system shell and turned into return codes instead. In this case the error message will only appear in the output of the shell. If you’re using shell, double-check the output for errors. Best avoid shell, if possible.

Reference

.. program-output:: command

Include the output of command in the documentation.

The output is formatted as literal text, without any syntax highlighting.

By default, the command is split according to the POSIX shell syntax (using shlex.split()), and executed directly. Both standard output and standard error are captured from the invocation of command and included in the document. However, if the option shell is given, command is literally passed to the system shell. With the nostderr option, standard error is hidden from the output.

The working directory of the command can be configured with the cwd option. The argument of this option is a directory path, relative to the current source file. Absolute paths are interpreted as relative to the root of the source directory. The default working directory is /, i.e. the root of the source directory.

If the prompt option is given, the command itself is included in the document, so that the output mimics input in a shell prompt. programoutput_prompt_template controls the appearance of this. The value of the extraargs option is appended at the end of command (separated by a whitespace) before executing the command, but not included in the output of the prompt option. Use this to pass extra arguments which should not appear in the document.

The output can be shortened with the ellipsis option. The value of this option is of the form start[,end] with start and end being integers which refer to lines in the output of command. end is optional and defaults to the last line. Negative line numbers count backwards from the last line. Everything in the interval [start, end[ is replaced with a single ellipsis .... The ellipsis option only affects the immediate output of command, but never any additional text inserted by option prompt.

If the command does return an exit code different from the expected one, a build warning is issued. The expected return code defaults to 0, and can be changed with the returncode option.

A caption option can be given to show the given name, or by default the given command, before the output block. A name option with a target name can be provided to reference the command block by using ref.

Changed in version 0.16: Add the caption and name options.

A language option can be given to specify the language of the output. This can be set for example to json for a program whose output is JSON. In that case, this must only be used with the program-output directive, and not command-output.

Changed in version 0.18: Add the language option.

.. command-output::

Same as program-output, but with enabled prompt option.

Configuration

This extension understands the following configuration options:

programoutput_prompt_template

A format string template for the output of the prompt option to command-output. Defaults to $ {command}\n{output} which renders as follows:

$ python -V
Python 3.11.10

The following keys are provided to the format string:

  • command is replaced with the literal command as given to the directive, without any extraargs.

  • output is the output of the command, after the ellipsis option has been applied.

  • returncode is the return code of the command as integer.

Support

Please report issues to the issue tracker if you have trouble or found a bug in this extension, but respect the following guidelines:

  • Check that the issue has not already been reported.

  • Check that the issue is not already fixed in the master branch.

  • Open issues with clear title and a detailed description in grammatically correct, complete sentences.

Development

The source code is hosted on Github:

git clone https://github.com/NextThought/sphinxcontrib-programoutput

Please fork the repository and send pull requests with your fixes or features, but respect these guidelines:

Changelog

Changes

0.18 (2024-12-06)

  • Drop support for Python < 3.8. This means Python 2 is no longer supported.

  • Drop setuptools dependency. Instead, use a native pkgutil namespace package.

  • Now requires docutils >= 0.18.1. This effectively requires Sphinx versions newer than 5.0.

  • Add the language option. Added in pull request #62 by Even Rouault.

0.17 (2021-03-31)

  • Add support for Python 3.9.

  • Drop support for python 3.5.

  • Include program output and current working directory in the warning logged when a program returns an unexpected return code. Suggested by Sorin Sbarnea. See issue #50.

0.16 (2020-03-23)

  • Add name and caption options. Added in pull request #41. by Raphaël.

  • Add support for Python 3.8.

0.15 (2019-09-16)

  • Make the test suite stop assuming the presence of a ‘python’ executable on the path. Instead it uses sys.executable (which shouldn’t have spaces). Note that it does continue to assume the presence of other executables, such as ‘echo’. Reported in issue #38 by John Vandenberg.

0.14 (2019-04-08)

  • Add python_requires metadata to better allow tools like pip to install a correct version.

  • Add support for Sphinx 2.0 on Python 3.

  • Avoid unicode errors when the program command or output produced non-ASCII output and the configured prompt was a byte string. This was most likely under Python 2, where the default configured prompt is a byte string. Reported by, and patch inspired by, issue #33 by latricewilgus.

0.13 (2018-12-22)

  • Drop support for Sphinx < 1.7.

  • Fix tests on Sphinx >= 1.8.0.

  • Restore error message into the document by default from failed program runs on Sphinx >= 1.8.0b1.

  • Fix deprecation warnings on Sphinx >= 1.8. Reported in issue #29 by miili.

0.11 (2017-05-18)

  • Explicitly set parallel_read_safe to true in the extension metadata. See issue #25 With thanks to Adam J. Stewart and Stephen McDowell.

0.10 (2017-03-17)

  • Decode output from the program tolerantly, using the ‘replace’ handler. Based on a pull request by Stefan C. Müller.

0.9 (2017-03-15)

  • Forked and revived the project in Gitub.

  • Run the tests on Travis CI. Formatting and style is enforced by pylint.

  • The oldest supported and tested Sphinx version is now 1.3.5. See issue #17.

  • Remove support for Python 2.6, Python 3.2 and 3.3.

  • 100% test coverage.

  • Remove support for programoutput_use_ansi. The sphinxcontrib.ansi extension is no longer available on PyPI.

0.8 (Oct 12, 2012)

  • Migrated to GitHub

0.7 (Apr 17, 2012)

  • Added cwd option to ..program-output

  • Working directory of executed programs defaults to documentation root now

0.6 (Jan 07, 2012)

  • Python 3 support

  • Require Sphinx 1.1 now

0.5 (Sep 19, 2011)

  • programoutput_prompt_template is interpreted as format string now!

  • Require Python 2.6 now

  • Added returncode option to program-output (thanks to Jan-Marek Glogowski)

  • Support returncode formatting key in programoutput_prompt_template

  • Warn on unexpected return codes instead of raising subprocess.CalledProcessError

  • Turn fatal errors during command into document error messages instead of crashing the build

0.4.1 (Mar 11, 2011)

  • Some source code cleanups

  • Fixed installation instructions in documentation

0.4 (May 21, 2010)

  • Initial release

License

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
“AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
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Footnotes