AsciiDoc User Guide
===================
Stuart Rackham <srackham@methods.co.nz>
v6.0.3, 20 April 2005
:Author Initials: SJR


AsciiDoc is a text document format for writing short documents,
articles, books and UNIX man pages. AsciiDoc files can be translated
to HTML (with or without stylesheets), DocBook and LinuxDoc markup
using the asciidoc(1) command.  AsciiDoc is highly configurable: both
the AsciiDoc source file syntax and the backend output markups (which
can be almost any type of SGML/XML markup) can be customized and
extended by the user.


Introduction
------------
**********************************************************************
This is a large rambling document, it really needs to be factored into
a Tutorial, FAQ, Quick Reference and Formal Reference.

If you're new to AsciiDoc read this section and the <<X6,Getting
Started>> section and take a look at the example AsciiDoc `*.txt`
source files in the distribution `examples` and `doc` directories.
**********************************************************************

Plain text is the most universal electronic document format, no matter
what computing environment you use, you can always read and write
plain text documentation. But for many applications plain text is not
a viable presentation format.  HTML, PDF and roff (roff is used for
man pages) are the most widely used Unix presentation formats.
DocBook is rapidly becoming the most popular Unix documentation markup
format (DocBook is easily translated to HTML, PDF and many other
presentation formats).

AsciiDoc is a plain text human readable/writable document format that
can be translated directly to DocBook and HTML using the asciidoc(1)
command. You can then either use asciidoc(1) generated HTML directly
or run asciidoc(1) DocBook output through your favorite DocBook
toolchain to produce PDF, HTML, RTF and even HTML Help presentation
formats.

The AsciiDoc format is a useful presentation format in it's own right:
AsciiDoc files are unencumbered by markup and is easily viewed,
proofed and edited.

AsciiDoc is light weight: it consists of a single Python script and a
bunch of configuration files. Apart from asciidoc(1) and a Python
interpreter, no other programs are required to convert AsciiDoc text
files to DocBook, HTML and LinuxDoc. See <<X11,Example AsciiDoc
Documents>> below.

You write an AsciiDoc document the same way you would write a normal
text document, there are no markup tags or weird notations. Built-in
AsciiDoc formatting rules have been kept to a minimum and are fairly
obvious.

Text markup conventions tend to be a matter of (often strong) personal
preference: if the default syntax is not to your liking you can define
your own by editing the text based asciidoc(1) configuration files.
You can create other backend formats to translate AsciiDoc documents
to almost any SGML/XML markup.

asciidoc(1) comes with a set of configuration files to translate
AsciiDoc files to HTML (articles, books, man pages), DocBook
(articles, books, man pages) or LinuxDoc (articles).

.My AsciiDoc Itch
**********************************************************************
DocBook has emerged as the defacto standard Open Source documentation
format. But DocBook is a complex language, the marked up text is
difficult to read and even more difficult to write directly, and I
found I was spending far to much time consulting reference manuals and
fixing syntax errors than actually writing the documentation.

**********************************************************************


[[X6]]
Getting Started
---------------
AsciiDoc is written in Python so you need a Python interpreter
(version 2.3 or later) to execute asciidoc(1). Python is installed
by the default configurations of most FreeBSD and Linux distributions.
You can download Python from the official Python website
http://www.python.org[].

.Debian Users
*********************************************************************
There's an
http://packages.debian.org/asciidoc[AsciiDoc Debian package]
available. Just install it using your favorite Debian installer and
then skip to the next section.

*********************************************************************

- If you haven't already done so download the latest AsciiDoc
  distribution tarball from
  http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/downloads.html[].

- Extract the distribution tarball (this example assumes the tarball
  is in you home directory and the `~/bin` directory exists):

  $ cd ~/bin
  $ tar -xzf ~/asciidoc-6.0.3.tar.gz

The tarball contains the executable `asciidoc.py` script,
configuration files, examples and documentation.

Test out asciidoc by changing to the AsciiDoc application directory
and converting the User Guide document (`./doc/asciidoc.txt`) to HTML
(`./doc/asciidoc.html`):

  $ ./asciidoc.py -b html doc/asciidoc.txt   # Plain HTML
  $ ./asciidoc.py -b css doc/asciidoc.txt    # HTML with CSS stylesheets

I use `.txt` file extensions for AsciiDoc document files.

If you want to avoid having to explicitly specify the location of
asciidoc every time you run it you'll need to make sure that
`asciidoc.py` can be found in your search path, you can do this by
putting a symbolic link to asciidoc in a directory in your search
path. For example (assuming `~/bin` is in `$PATH`):

  $ ln -s ~/bin/asciidoc-6.0.3/asciidoc.py ~/bin/asciidoc

You can now execute asciidoc(1) by typing `asciidoc`.

[[X11]]
Example AsciiDoc Documents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Examples of AsciiDoc markup are scattered throughout this document but
the best way to quickly get a feel for AsciiDoc is to view the
AsciiDoc web site and/or distributed examples:

- Take a look at the linked examples on the AsciiDoc web site home
  page http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/[].  Press the 'Page Source'
  button to view corresponding AsciiDoc source.
- Read the `*.txt` AsciiDoc documentation source files in conjunction
  with the corresponding HTML and DocBook XML files (in the AsciiDoc
  distribution `./doc` directory).


[[X5]]
AsciiDoc Backends
-----------------
The asciidoc(1) command translates an AsciiDoc formatted file to the
backend format specified by the `-b` command-line option. asciidoc(1)
itself little intrinsic knowledge of backend formats, all translation
rules are contained in user customizable cascading configuration
files.

AsciiDoc ships with the following predefined backend output formats:

docbook
~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc generates DocBook article, book and refentry documents
(corresponding to the asciidoc(1) 'article', 'book' and 'manpage'
document types).

As of version 4.2 the `-b docbook` command-line option switched from
outputting DocBook SGML to the newer DocBook XML. You can still
produce DocBook SGML using the `-b docbook-sgml` command-line option.

The DocBook DTD restricts the allowable AsciiDoc syntax:

- The AsciiDoc 'Preamble' element is output as a DocBook book
  'Preface' when processed as a 'book' document type.

xhtml
~~~~~
The asciidoc(1) `-b xhtml` command-line option produces plain unstyled
XHTML 1.0 markup that can be viewed on any modern web browser.

html
~~~~
A minor variation of `xhtml` -- the asciidoc(1) `-b html` command-line
option produces HTML 4 markup.

css
~~~
The asciidoc(1) `-b css` command-line option produces XHTML 1.0
conformant output styled with linked CSS2 stylesheets. 

The `main.css`, `article.css` and `manpage.css` stylesheets (located
in the `./stylesheets/` directory) style both screen and printed
outputs.  Edit the stylesheets to customize your document's
appearance.

NOTE: Browser CSS support varies from browser to browser. The examples
work well on IE6, Firefox 1.0 and up, Mozilla 1.1 and up, Opera 7  and
Konqueror 3.01 but have not been tested on other browsers. All
browsers have their quirks.  When it comes to implementing CSS, of
those tested I found Mozilla and Firefox to be the most conformant.

css-embedded
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The asciidoc(1) `-b css-embedded` command-line option produces XHTML
1.0 conformant output styled with embedded CSS2 stylesheets.  Similar
to the 'css' backend but translated files do not rely on external
stylesheets.

linuxdoc
~~~~~~~~
[[X19]]
The LinuxDoc DTD restricts the allowable AsciiDoc syntax:

- Callouts are not supported.
- Tables are not supported.
- Horizontal labeled lists are not supported.
- Only article document types are allowed.
- The Abstract section can consist only of a single paragraph.
- An AsciiDoc Preamble is not allowed.
- The LinuxDoc output format does not support multiple labels per
  labeled list item although LinuxDoc conversion programs generally
  output all the labels with a warning.
- Don't apply character formatting to the `link` macro attributes,
  LinuxDoc does not allow displayed link text to be formatted.


Converting to other Presentation Formats
----------------------------------------
DocBook documents are not designed to be viewed directly.  FreeBSD and
most Linux distributions come with conversion tools (collectively
called a tool chain) for converting DocBook files to presentation
formats such as Postscript, HTML, PDF, DVI, roff (the native man page
format), HTMLHelp, JavaHelp and text.

DocBook Conversion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.DocBook Tool Chains
**********************************************************************
DocBook files are validated, parsed and translated by a combination of
applications collectively called a DocBook 'tool chain'. The core
function of a tool chain is to read the DocBook markup (produced by
AsciiDoc) and transform it to a presentation format (for example HTML,
PDF, HTML Help) using a set of rules and stylesheets.

A wide range of user output format requirements coupled with a choice
of available tools and stylesheets results in many valid tool chain
combinations.

Assembling a working DocBook tool chain requires a fairly detailed
understanding of how the tools work together.  Popular Linux
distributions come with both toolchains and toolchain wrapper scripts.

Wrapper scripts tie together the various toolchain commands and
simplify the underlying complexity. Recent Redhat/Fedora distributions
have shipped fully configured toolchains along with both the
`xmlto(1)` and the `jw(1)` toolchain wrappers (which process DocBook
XML and DocBook SGML documents using XSL and DSSSL stylesheets
respectively).  `xmlto(1)` and related tools are standard Cygwin
packages and are recommended for Microsoft Windows users.

Immediately below you'll find examples using toolchain wrapper scripts
-- explicit use of DocBook toolchain commands can be found in the
<<X12,Processing DocBook Files>> section.

**********************************************************************

The default `xmlto(1)` and `jw(1)` outputs are quite plain (compared
to the distributed AsciiDoc HTML and PDF documentation files). The
<<X12,Processing DocBook Files>> section explains how you can generate
nicely styled output using custom 'DocBook XSL Stylesheets' drivers.
This is the best route for generating PDF outputs.

WARNING: I don't recommend using `xmlto(1)` for producing PDF -- the
output is not bookmarked and callouts generate LaTeX errors.

If you use `jw(1)` don't forget to specify the `docbook-sgml`
backend, not the `docbook` backend.  This example converts the
`asciidoc.txt` AsciiDoc User Guide to PDF format:

  $ asciidoc -b docbook-sgml asciidoc.txt
  $ jw -b pdf asciidoc.sgml

To convert the `asciidoc.1.txt` AsciiDoc manpage document to native
man page `groff(1)` man macro package format:

  $ asciidoc -d manpage -b docbook asciidoc.1.txt
  $ xmlto man asciidoc.1.xml

To view the man page file as it would be displayed by the man(1)
command:

  $ groff -mandoc -Tascii asciidoc.1 | less

To print a high quality man page to a postscript printer:

  $ groff -mandoc -Tps asciidoc.1 | lpr

You can also produce HTML from DocBook files:

  $ asciidoc -b docbook asciidoc.txt
  $ xmlto html-nochunks asciidoc.xml      # Single HTML file.
  $ xmlto html -o chunked asciidoc.xml    # Chunked HTML file.

.Why Generate HTML via DocBook?
**********************************************************************
AsciiDoc produces nicely styled HTML directly without requiring a
DocBook toolchain so why would you want generate it via DocBook?

- HTML from DocBook includes automatically generated indexes, tables
  of contents, footnotes, lists of figures and tables.
- DocBook toolchains can also (optionally) generate separate (chunked)
  linked HTML pages for each document section.
- Toolchain processing performs link and document validity checks.

Plain and CSS styled HTML output directly from AsciiDoc is still very
useful in the following situations:

- Generating Websites.
- Generating documents that don't require front and back matter.
- Where there is no suitable DocBook toolchain.

**********************************************************************

LinuxDoc Conversion
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LinuxDoc is an SGML documentation markup language originally created
by Matt Welsh to write Linux documentation. LinuxDoc does a good job
of marking up small and medium sized text based documents. Its
strength is its simplicity and ease of use. Nowadays LinuxDoc has been
largely superseded by DocBook.

NOTE: LinuxDoc limitations <<X19, place restrictions>> on the use of
a number of AsciiDoc elements.

There are a number of Open Source applications available to convert
the LinuxDoc SGML markup to various presentation formats, here are a
couple of examples:

Create a single HTML file with a detailed table of contents using the
linuxdoc(1) command that comes with the Linuxdoc-Tools package.

  $ linuxdoc -B html -s 0 -T 2 mydocument.sgml

Generate a set of linked HTML files using the sgmlfmt(1) from the
FreeBSD sgmlformat package:

  $ sgmlfmt -f html mydocument.sgml

Create a PDF file using the sgmlfmt(1) from the FreeBSD sgmlformat
package:

  $ sgmlfmt -f ps mydocument.sgml
  $ ps2pdf asciidoc.ps

Generating Plain Text Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc does not have a text backend (for most applications AsciiDoc
source text is fine), however you can convert asciidoc(1) generated
HTML and DocBook files to text.

You can use the `lynx(1)` web browser to convert AsciiDoc generated
HTML to text.  You'll find an `asciidoc2text.sh` shell script included
in the AsciiDoc distribution `examples/asciidoc2text` directory which,
together with the `asciidoc2text.conf` configuration file, automates
text file generation with a single command. For example:

  $ ./examples/asciidoc2text/asciidoc2text.sh test.txt >test.text

You can also use `jw(1)` and `xmlto(1)` toolchain commands to convert
DocBook to text.

WARNING: By default both `jw(1)` and `xmlto(1)` commands create files
with a `.txt` extension when generating text files. This will
overwrite your AsciiDoc `*.txt` source files (use the `-o`
command-line option to output to an alternative directory).


AsciiDoc Document Types
-----------------------
There are three types of AsciiDoc documents: article, book and
manpage. All document types share the same AsciiDoc format with some
minor variations.

Use the asciidoc(1) -d option to specify the AsciiDoc document type
(defaults to article type).

article
~~~~~~~
Used for short documents, articles and general documentation.  See the
`article.txt` example AsciiDoc article in the distribution `./doc`
directory.

book
~~~~
Books share the same format as articles; in addition there is the
option to add level 0 sections to divide a book into multiple parts.

Book documents will normally be used to produce DocBook output since
DocBook processors can automatically generate footnotes, table of
contents, list of tables, list of figures, list of examples and
indexes.

AsciiDoc markup supports all the standard DocBook frontmatter and
backmatter <<X16,special sections>> (dedication, preface,
bibliography, glossary, index, colophon) plus footnotes and index
entries.

.Example book documents
Book::
        The `book.txt` file in the AsciiDoc distribution `./doc`
        directory.

Multi-part book::
        The `book-multi.txt` file in the AsciiDoc distribution `./doc`
        directory.

manpage
~~~~~~~
Used to generate UNIX manual pages.  AsciiDoc manpage documents
observe special header title and section naming conventions -- see the
<<X1,Manpage Documents>> section for details.

The asciidoc(1) man page (`asciidoc.1.txt` in the AsciiDoc
distribution `./doc` directory) is an example of an AsciiDoc man page
file.


Document Structure
------------------
An AsciiDoc document consists of a series of <<G1,block elements>>
starting with an optional document Header, followed by an optional
Preamble, followed by zero or more document Sections.

Almost any combination of zero or more elements constitutes a valid
AsciiDoc document: documents can range from a single sentence to a
multi-part book.

Block Elements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Block elements consist of one or more lines of text and may contain
other block elements.

The AsciiDoc block structure can be informally summarized
footnote:[This is a rough structural guide, not a rigorous syntax
definition] as follows:

  Document      ::= (Header?,Preamble?,Section*)
  Header        ::= (Title,(AuthorLine,RevisionLine?)?)
  AuthorLine    ::= (FirstName,(MiddleName?,LastName)?,EmailAddress?)
  RevisionLine  ::= (Revision?,Date)
  Preamble      ::= (SectionBody)
  Section       ::= (Title,SectionBody?,(Section)*)
  SectionBody   ::= ((BlockTitle?,
                    (Paragraph|DelimitedBlock|List|Table|BlockMacro))+)
  List          ::= (BulletedList|NumberedList|LabeledList|CalloutList)
  BulletedList  ::= (ListItem)+
  NumberedList  ::= (ListItem)+
  CalloutList   ::= (ListItem)+
  LabeledList   ::= (ItemLabel+,ListItem)+
  ListItem      ::= (ItemText,((List|ListParagraph)?,ItemContinuation?)*)
  Table         ::= (Ruler,TableHeader?,TableBody,TableFooter?)
  TableHeader   ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline)
  TableFooter   ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline)
  TableBody     ::= (TableRow+,TableUnderline)
  TableRow      ::= (TableData+)

- '?' implies zero or one occurrence, '+' implies one or more
  occurrences, '*' implies zero or more occurrences.
- All block elements are separated by line boundaries.
- `BlockId`, `AttributeEntry` and `AttributeList` block elements (not
  shown) can occur almost anywhere.
- There are a number of document type and backend specific
  restrictions imposed on the block syntax.
- The following elements cannot contain blank lines: Header, Title,
  Paragraph, ItemText.
- A ListParagraph is a Paragraph with it's 'listelement' option set.

Header
~~~~~~
The Header is optional but and starts on first line of the document
beginning with a document <<X17,title>>.  Immediately following the
title are optional Author and Revision lines.

The author line contains the author's name optionally followed by the
author's email address. The author's name consists of a first name
followed by optional middle and last names separated by white space.
The email address is last and must be enclosed in angle <> brackets.
Author names cannot contain angle <> bracket characters.

The optional document header revision line should immediately follow
the author line. The revision line can be one of two formats:

. A an alphanumeric document revision number followed by a date:
  * The revision number and date must be separated by a comma.
  * The revision number is optional but must contain at least one
    numeric character.
  * Any non-numeric characters preceding the first numeric character
    will be dropped.
. An RCS $Id$ marker.

The document heading is separated from the remainder of the document
by one or more blank lines.

Here's an example AsciiDoc document header:

  Writing Documentation using AsciiDoc
  ====================================
  Stuart Rackham <srackham@methods.co.nz>
  v2.0, February 2003

You can override or set header parameters by passing 'revision',
'data', 'email', 'author', 'authorinitials', 'firstname' and
'lastname' attributes using the asciidoc(1) `-a` command-line
option. For example:

  $ asciidoc -b docbook -a date=2004/07/27 article.txt

Attributes can also be added to the header for substitution in the
header template with <<X18,Attribute Entry>> elements.

Preamble
~~~~~~~~
The Preamble is an optional untitled section body between the document
Header and the first Section title. The Preamble should only be
included in 'article' documents.


Sections
~~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc supports five section levels which corresponding to document
levels 0 to 4 (although only book documents are allowed to contain
level 0 sections). Section levels are delineated by the section title
underlines.

A section consists of a section title followed by an optional section
body.

Sections are translated using configuration file markup templates. To
determine which configuration file section to use AsciiDoc first searches
for section titles in the `[specialsections]` configuration entries,
if not found it looks for the name `[sect<level>]`.

You can the `-n` command-line option to auto-number HTML outputs
(DocBook line numbering is handled automatically by the DocBook
toolchain commands).

[[X16]]
Special Sections
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In addition to nested sections documents generally have frontmatter
and backmatter sections with special semantic significance, for
example: preface, bibliography, table of contents, index.

AsciiDoc configuration files can have a `[specialsections]` section
which specifies special section titles and the corresponding backend
markup.

`[specialsections]` entries are formatted like:

  <pattern>=<name>

`<pattern>` is a Python regular expression and `<name>` is the name of
a configuration file markup template section. If the `<pattern>`
matches an AsciiDoc document section title then the backend output is
marked up using the `<name>` markup template. The \{title} attribute
value is set to the value of the matched regular expression group
named 'title', if there is no 'title' group \{title} is set to the the
whole of the section title.

The special section names in the default `[specialsections]` section
are:

  Preface                    (book documents only)
  Abstract                   (article documents only)
  Dedication                 (book documents only)
  Glossary
  Bibliography|References
  Colophon                   (book documents only)
  Index
  Appendix [A-Z][:.] <title>
  
Inline Elements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inline document elements occur within block elements; inline elements
can begin and end anywhere within a line but cannot span multiple
lines.

Inline elements are used to markup character formatting and various
types of text substitution. Inline elements and inline element syntax
is defined in the asciidoc(1) configuration files.

Here is a list of AsciiDoc inline elements in the (default) order in
which they are processed:

Special characters::
	These character sequences escape special characters used by
	the backend markup (typically "<", ">", and "&"). See
	`[specialcharacters]` configuration file sections.

Quotes::
	Characters that markup words and phrases; usually for
	character formatting. See `[quotes]` configuration file
	sections.

Special Words::
	Word or word phrase patterns singled out for markup without
	the need for further annotation.  See `[specialwords]`
	configuration file sections.

Replacements::
	Each Replacement defines a word or word phrase pattern to
	search for along with corresponding replacement text. See
	`[replacements]` configuration file sections.

Attributes::
        Document attribute names enclosed in braces (attribute
        references) are replaced by the corresponding attribute value.

Inline Macros::
	Inline macros are replaced by the contents of parameterized
	configuration file sections.


Document Processing
-------------------
The AsciiDoc source document is read and processed as follows:

1. The document 'Header' is parsed, header parameter values are
   substituted into the configuration file `[header]` template section
   which is then written to the output file.
2. Each document 'Section' is processed and it's constituent elements
   parsed and translated to the output file.
3. The configuration file `[footer]` template section is substituted
   and written to the output file.

When a block element is encountered asciidoc(1) determines the type of
block by checking in the following order (first to last): BlockTitles,
(section) Titles, BlockMacros, Lists, DelimitedBlocks, Tables,
AttributeEntrys, AttributeLists, Paragraphs.

The default paragraph definition `[paradef-default]` is last element
to be checked.

Knowing the parsing order will help you devise unambiguous macro, list
and block syntax rules.

Inline substitutions within block elements are performed in the
following default order:

1. Special characters
2. Quotes
3. Special words
4. Replacements
5. Attributes
6. Inline Macros

The substitutions and substitution order performed on
Title, Paragraph and DelimitedBlock elements is determined by
configuration file parameters.


Text Formatting
---------------
Quoted Text
~~~~~~~~~~~
Words and phrases can be formatted by enclosing the text with
predefined quoting characters:

'Emphasized text'::
	Word phrases \'enclosed in single quote characters' (acute
	accents) are emphasized.

*Strong text*::
	Word phrases \*enclosed in asterisk characters* are rendered
	in a strong font (usually bold).

`Monospaced text`::
	Word phrases \`enclosed in backtick characters` (grave
	accents) are rendered in a monospaced font.

Quoting characters can be changed and new quoting markup syntax
defined by editing asciidoc(1) configuration files.  See the
<<X7,Configuration Files>> section for details.

.Quoted text properties
- Quoted text must not be flanked by alphanumeric characters.
- Quoting cannot be overlapped.
- Different quoting types can be nested.
- To suppress quoted text formatting place a backslash character
  immediately in front of the leading quote character(s). In the case
  of ambiguity between escaped and non-escaped text you will need to
  escape both leading and trailing quotes, in the case of
  multi-character quotes you may even need to escaped individual
  characters.
- The appearance of quoted text can be customized by editing the
  corresponding configuration file tag definitions.  (although in the
  case of 'css' backends it probably makes more sense to edit the CSS
  stylesheets).

Superscripts and Subscripts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Put carets on either side of the text to be superscripted, put tildes
on either side of text to be subscripted.  For example, the following
line:

  e^{amp}#960;i^+1 = 0. H~2~O and x^10^. Some ^super text^
  and ~some sub text~

Is rendered like:

e^{amp}#960;i^+1 = 0. H~2~O and x^10^. Some ^super text^
and ~some sub text~

If you want to display caret (^) or tilde (~) characters you need
to ensure only one per line otherwise they'll be misinterpreted as
superscripting and subscripting.

Superscripts and subscripts are implemented as 'Replacements'
substitutions.

Line Breaks (HTML)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A plus character preceded by at least one space character at the end
of a line forces a line break. It generates an HTML line break
(`<br/>`) tag. Line breaks are ignored when outputting to DocBook
since it has no line break element.

Rulers (HTML)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A line of three or more apostrophe characters will generate an HTML
ruler (`<hr/>`) tag. Ignored when generating non-HTML output formats.

Tabs
~~~~
By default tab characters input files will translated to 8 spaces. Tab
expansion is set with the 'tabsize' entry in the configuration file
`[miscellaneous]` section and can be overridden in the 'include' block macro
by setting a 'tabsize' attribute in the macro's attribute list. For example:

  include::addendum.txt[tabsize=2]
  
The tab size can also be set using the `-a` command-line option, for
example `-a tabsize=4`

Replacements
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following replacements are defined in the default AsciiDoc
configuration:

  (C) copyright, (TM) trademark, (R) registered trademark,
  -- em dash, ... ellipsis.

Is rendered as:

(C) copyright, (TM) trademark, (R) registered trademark,
-- em dash, ... ellipsis.

The <<X7,Configuration Files>> section explains how to configure your
own replacements.

Special Words
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Words defined in `[specialwords]` configuration file sections are
automatically marked up without having to be explicitly notated.

The <<X7,Configuration Files>> section explains how to add and replace
special words.


[[X17]]
Titles
------
Document and section titles consist of one or two lines.

Two line titles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A two line title consists of a title line, starting hard against the
left margin, and an underline. Section underlines consist a repeated
character pairs spanning the width of the preceding title (give or
take up to three characters):

The default title underlines for each of the document levels are:


  Level 0 (top level):     ======================
  Level 1:                 ----------------------
  Level 2:                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Level 3:                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  Level 4 (bottom level):  ++++++++++++++++++++++
  
Examples:

  Level One Section Title
  -----------------------

  Level 2 Subsection Title
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One line titles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One line titles consist of a line starting with one or more equals
characters (the exact number specified the section level) followed by a space followed by the section title. Here are some examples:

  = Document Title
  == Section level 1 title (top level section)
  === Section level 2 title
  ==== Section level 3 title
  ===== Section level 4 title

The syntax can be changed by editing the configuration file `[titles]`
section `sect0`...`sect4` entries.


BlockTitles
-----------
A BlockTitle element is a single line beginning with a period followed
by a title. The title is applied to the next Paragraph,
DelimitedBlock, List, Table or BlockMacro.For example:

........................
.Notes
- Note 1.
- Note 2.
........................

is rendered as:

.Notes
- Note 1.
- Note 2.


BlockId Element
---------------
A 'BlockId' is a single line block element containing a unique
identifier enclosed in double square brackets. It is used to assign an
identifier to the ensuing block element for use by referring links. For
example:

  [[chapter-titles]]
  Chapter titles can be ...

The preceding example identifies the following paragraph so it can be
linked from other location, for example with
`\<<chapter-titles,chapter titles>>`.

'BlockId' elements can be applied to Title, Paragraph, List,
DelimitedBlock and BlockMacro elements.  The BlockId element is really
just an AttributeList with a special syntax which sets the `\{id}`
attribute for substitution in the subsequent block's markup template.


Paragraphs
----------
Paragraphs are terminated by a blank line, the end of file, or the
start of a DelimitedBlock.

Paragraph types are defined in configuration file `[paradef*]`
sections.  AsciiDoc ships with the following predefined paragraph
types:

Default Paragraph
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Default paragraph (`[paradef-default]`) consists of one or more
non-blank lines of text.  The first line must start hard against the
left margin (no intervening white space). The processing expectation
of the default paragraph type is that of a normal paragraph of text.

Literal Paragraph
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An Literal paragraph (`[paradef-literal]`) consists of one or more
lines of text, where the first line is indented by one or more or
space or tab characters. Literal paragraphs are rendered verbatim in a
monospaced font usually without any distinguishing background or
border.  There is no text formatting or substitutions within Literal
paragraphs apart from Special Characters and Callouts.  For example:

  Consul necessitatibus per id,
  consetetur, eu pro everti postulant
  homero verear ea mea,
  qui. Movet blandit mea at,
  interesset at has, eu nec.

Admonition Paragraphs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'Tip', 'Note', 'Important', 'Warning' and 'Caution' paragraph
definitions support the corresponding DocBook admonishment elements,
just write a normal paragraph but place `NOTE:`, `TIP:`, `IMPORTANT:`,
`WARNING:` or `CAUTION:` as the first word of the paragraph. For
example:

  NOTE: This is an example note.

Renders:

NOTE: This is an example note.

TIP: If your admonition is more than a single paragraph use one of the
admonition variants of the ExampleBlock.

Paragraph Definitions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Paragraph translation is controlled by `[paradef*]` configuration file
section entries. Users can define new types of paragraphs and modify
the behavior of existing types by editing AsciiDoc configuration
files.

Here is the shipped Default paragraph definition:

--------------------------------------------------------------------
[paradef-default]
delimiter=(?P<text>\S.*)
template=paragraph
--------------------------------------------------------------------

The Default paragraph definition has a couple of special properties:

1. It must exist and be defined in a configuration file section named
   `[paradef-default]`.
2. Irrespective of its position in the configuration files the default
   paragraph definition is always processed last.

Available paragraph definition entries:

delimiter::
	A Python regular expression that matches the first line of a
	paragraph. This expression must contain the named group 'text'
	which matches the text on the first line.  Paragraphs are
	terminated by a blank line, the end of file, or the start of a
	DelimitedBlock.

template::
        The name of the configuration file section (markup template)
        that will envelope the translated paragraph contents. The pipe
        character in the section body is substituted for the
        paragraph text.

options::
	The only allowable option is 'listelement'.  The 'listelement'
	option specifies that paragraphs of this type will be part of
        preceding list items.

presubs, postsubs::
	A comma separated list of the substitutions that are performed
	on the block contents. Allowed values: 'specialcharacters',
	'quotes', 'specialwords', 'replacements', 'macros',
	'attributes'.  If a 'filter' has been specified the 'presubs'
	and 'postsubs' substitutions are performed before and after
	the filter is run respectively.  The substitutions are
	processed in the order in which they are listed and can appear
	more than once.

filter::
        This optional entry specifies an executable shell command for
        processing paragraph text.  The filter command can contain
        references to attributes (document attribute names enclosed in
        braces) which are expanded prior to filter execution.

.Paragraph processing proceeds as follows:
1. The paragraph text is aligned to the left margin.
2. Optional 'presubs' inline substitutions are performed on the
   paragraph text.
3. If a filter command is specified it is executed and the paragraph
   text piped to it's standard input; the filter output replaces the
   paragraph text.
4. Optional 'postsubs' inline substitutions are performed on the
   paragraph text.
5. The paragraph text is enveloped by the paragraph 'template' and
   written to the output file.


Lists
-----
.List types
- Bulleted lists. Also known as itemized or unordered lists).
- Numbered lists. Also called ordered lists.
- Labeled lists. Sometimes called variable or definition lists.
- Callout lists (a list for callout annotations).

.List behavior
- Indentation is optional and does not determine nesting, indentation
  does however make the source more readable.
- A nested list must use a different syntax from its parent so that
  asciidoc(1) can distinguish between the start of a nested list and
  another list item.
- By default lists of the same type can only be nested two deep; this
  can be increased by defining new list definitions.
- In addition to nested lists a list item can include immediately
  following Literal paragraphs.
- Use <<X15, List Item Continuation>> to include other block elements
  in a list item.

Bulleted and Numbered Lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bulleted list items start with a dash followed by a space or tab
character. Bulleted list syntaxes are:
...................
- List item.
* List item.
...................

Numbered list items start with an optional number or letter followed
by a period followed by a space or tab character.  List numbering is
optional. Numbered list syntaxes are:
.....................................................................
.  Integer numbered list item.
1. Integer numbered list item with optional numbering.
.. Lowercase letter numbered list item.
a. Lowercase letter numbered list item with optional numbering.
.....................................................................

Here are some examples:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
  * Fusce euismod commodo velit.
  * Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis
    adolescens. Sit munere ponderum dignissim et. Minim luptatum et
    vel.
  * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
- Nulla porttitor vulputate libero.
  . Fusce euismod commodo velit.
  . Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
    .. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
    .. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  . Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
- Praesent eget purus quis magna eleifend eleifend.
  1. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
    a. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
    b. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
    c. Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
  2. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  3. Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
  4. Nam fermentum mattis ante.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Which render as:

- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
  * Fusce euismod commodo velit.
  * Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis
    adolescens. Sit munere ponderum dignissim et. Minim luptatum et
    vel.
  * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
- Nulla porttitor vulputate libero.
  . Fusce euismod commodo velit.
  . Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
    .. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
    .. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  . Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
- Praesent eget purus quis magna eleifend eleifend.
  1. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
    a. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
    b. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
    c. Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
  2. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  3. Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
  4. Nam fermentum mattis ante.

Vertical Labeled Lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Labeled list items consist of one or more text labels followed the
text of the list item.

An item label begins a line with an alphanumeric character hard
against the left margin and ends with a double colon '::' or
semi-colon `;;`.

The list item text consists of one or more lines of text starting on
the line immediately following the label and can be followed by nested
List or ListParagraph elements. Item text can be optionally indented.

Here are some examples:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Lorem::
  Fusce euismod commodo velit.

  Fusce euismod commodo velit.

Ipsum::
  Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
Dolor::
  Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
  'Suspendisse';;
    A massa id sem aliquam auctor.
  'Morbi';;
    Pretium nulla vel lorem.
  'In';;
    Dictum mauris in urna.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Which render as:

Lorem::
  Fusce euismod commodo velit.

  Fusce euismod commodo velit.

Ipsum::
  Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
Dolor::
  Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
  'Suspendisse';;
    A massa id sem aliquam auctor.
  'Morbi';;
    Pretium nulla vel lorem.
  'In';;
    Dictum mauris in urna.

Horizontal Labeled Lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Horizontal labeled lists differ from vertical labeled lists in that
the label and the list item sit side-by-side as opposed to the item
under the label. Item text must  begin on the same line as the label.
For example:

TIP: Used vertical labeled lists in preference to horizontal labeled
lists -- current PDF rendering tools do not make a good job of
determining the relative column widths.

Here are some examples:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
*Lorem*:: Fusce euismod commodo velit.
  Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis
  adolescens.

  Fusce euismod commodo velit.

*Ipsum*:: Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
*Dolor*:: Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
  Sit munere ponderum dignissim et. Minim luptatum et vel.
  'Suspendisse';; A massa id sem aliquam auctor.
  'Morbi';;       Pretium nulla vel lorem.
  'In';;          Dictum mauris in urna.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Which render as:

*Lorem*:: Fusce euismod commodo velit.
  Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis
  adolescens.

  Fusce euismod commodo velit.

*Ipsum*:: Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  * Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
*Dolor*:: Donec eget arcu bibendum nunc consequat lobortis.
  Sit munere ponderum dignissim et. Minim luptatum et vel.
  'Suspendisse';; A massa id sem aliquam auctor.
  'Morbi';;       Pretium nulla vel lorem.
  'In';;          Dictum mauris in urna.

Question and Answer Lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc comes pre-configured with a labeled list (`??` label
delimiter) for generating question and answer (Q&A) lists. Example:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Question one??
        Answer one.
Question two??
        Answer two.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Caused FOP to fail sometimes with 'id already exists in this
// document' error. Looks like a FOP problem: there is only one
// occurrence of the id and both the .fo and .xml source validate.
Renders:

Question one??
        Answer one.
Question two??
        Answer two.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Glossary Lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc comes pre-configured with a labeled list (`:-` label
delimiter) for generating glossary lists. Example:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
A glossary term:-
    The corresponding definition.
A second glossary term:-
    The corresponding definition.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

For working examples see the `article.txt` and `book.txt` documents in
the AsciiDoc `./doc` distribution directory.

NOTE: Glossary lists must be located in a glossary section to generate
valid DocBook output.

Bibliography Lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc comes with a predefined itemized list (`+` item bullet) for
generating bibliography entries.  Example:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
+ [[[taoup]]] Eric Steven Raymond. 'The Art of Unix
  Programming'. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-13-142901-9.
+ [[[walsh-muellner]]] Norman Walsh & Leonard Muellner.
  'DocBook - The Definitive Guide'. O'Reilly & Associates.
  1999. ISBN 1-56592-580-7.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The `[[[<reference>]]]` syntax is a bibliography entry anchor, it
generates an anchor named `<reference>` and additionally displays
`[<reference>]` at the anchor position. For example `[\[[taoup]]]`
generates an anchor named `taoup` that displays `[taoup]` at the
anchor position. Cite the reference from elsewhere your document using
`\<<taoup>>`, this displays a hyperlink (`[taoup]`) to the
corresponding bibliography entry anchor.

For working examples see the `article.txt` and `book.txt` documents in
the AsciiDoc `./doc` distribution directory.

NOTE: Bibliography lists must be located in a bibliography section to
generate valid DocBook output.

[[X15]]
List Item Continuation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To include subsequent block elements in list items (in addition to
implicitly included nested lists and Literal paragraphs) place a
separator line containing a single plus character between the list
item and the ensuing element.  Multiple block elements (excluding
section Titles and BlockTitles) may be included in a list item using
this technique.  For example:

Here's an example of list item continuation:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
1. List item one.
+
List item one continued with a second paragraph followed by an
Indented block.
+
.................
$ ls *.sh
$ mv *.sh ~/tmp
.................
+
List item one continued with a third paragraph.

2. List item two.

   List item two literal paragraph (no continuation required).

-  Nested list (item one).

   Nested list literal paragraph (no continuation required).
+
Nested list appended list item one paragraph

-  Nested list item two.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Renders:

1. List item one.
+
List item one continued with a second paragraph followed by a Listing
block.
+
.................
$ ls *.sh
$ mv *.sh ~/tmp
.................
+
List item one continued with a third paragraph.

2. List item two.

   List item two literal paragraph (no continuation required).

-  Nested list (item one).

   Nested list literal paragraph (no continuation required).
+
Nested list appended list item one paragraph

-  Nested list item two.


List Continuation Block
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A List Continuation block is a special delimited block which is
functionally equivalent to <<X15,List Item Continuation>> except that
list items contained within the block do not require explicit `+` list
item continuation lines:
  
* All elements between list items are part of the preceding list
  item.
* The block delimiter is a single line containing two dashes.
* Any block title or attributes are passed to the first element inside
  the block.

The List Continuation Block is an experimental feature and is useful
for lists with long multi-element list items. The alternative List
Item Continuation is arguably uglier but is more obvious when reading
AsciiDoc source -- if you don't have strong feelings either way use
explicit list continuation.

Example:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
.List Block
--
1. List item one.

List item one continued with a second paragraph followed by an
Indented block.

.................
$ ls *.sh
$ mv *.sh ~/tmp
.................

List item one continued with a third paragraph.

2. List item two.

This paragraph is part of list item 2.
--
---------------------------------------------------------------------

List Definitions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
List behavior and syntax is determined by `[listdef*]` configuration
file sections. The user can change existing list behavior and add new
list types by editing configuration files.

List definition sections are characterized by the following entries:

type::
	This is either 'bulleted','numbered','labeled' or 'callout'.
delimiter::
	A Python regular expression that matches the first line of a
	list element entry. This expression must contain the named
	group 'text' which matches text in the first line.
subs::
	A comma separated list of the substitutions that are performed
	on list item text and terms. Allowed values:
	'specialcharacters', 'quotes', 'specialwords', 'replacements',
	'macros', 'attributes', 'default', 'none'.
listtag::
	The name of the tag that envelopes the List.
itemtag::
	The name of the tag that envelopes the ListItem.
texttag::
	The name of the tag that envelopes the text of first block
	element in a list item.
entrytag::
	The name of the tag that envelopes a labeled list entry.
labeltag::
	The name of the tag that envelopes a variable list term.

The tag entries map the AsciiDoc list structure to backend
HTML/SGML/XML markup; see the shipped AsciiDoc `.conf` configuration
files for examples.


Delimited Blocks
----------------
Delimited blocks are blocks of text enveloped by leading and trailing
delimiter lines (normally a series of three or more repeated
characters). The behavior of Delimited Blocks is specified by entries
in configuration file `[blockdef*]` sections.

Predefined Delimited Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc ships with a number of predefined DelimitedBlocks (see the
`asciidoc.conf` configuration file in the asciidoc(1) program
directory):

Predefined delimited block underlines:

  CommentBlock:  //////////////////////////
  BackendBlock:  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  ListingBlock:  --------------------------
  LiteralBlock:  ..........................
  SidebarBlock:  **************************
  QuoteBlock:    __________________________

.Default DelimitedBlock substitutions
`-------------.---------.---------.---------.---------.---------
	      Backend   Listing   Literal   Sidebar   Quote
----------------------------------------------------------------
Callouts        No        Yes       Yes      No        No
Attributes      Yes       No        No       Yes       Yes
Inline Macros   Yes       No        No       Yes       Yes
Quotes          No        No        No       Yes       Yes
Replacements    No        No        No       Yes       Yes
Special chars   No        Yes       Yes      Yes       Yes
Special words   No        No        No       Yes       Yes
----------------------------------------------------------------

Listing Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ListingBlocks are rendered verbatim in a monospaced font, they retain
line and whitespace formatting and often distinguished by a background
or border. There is no text formatting or substitutions within
Listing blocks apart from Special Characters and Callouts. Listing
blocks are often used for code and file listings.

Here's an example:

  --------------------------------------
  #include <stdio.h>

  int main() {
	  printf("Hello World!\n");
	  exit(0);
  }
  --------------------------------------

Which will be rendered like:

--------------------------------------
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
	printf("Hello World!\n");
	exit(0);
}
--------------------------------------

Literal Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LiteralBlocks behave just like LiteralParagraphs except you don't have
to indent the contents.

LiteralBlocks can be used to resolve list ambiguity. If the following
list was indented it would be processed as an ordered list (not an
indented paragraph):

  ....................
  1. Item 1
  2. Item 2
  ....................

Renders:
....................
1. Item 1
2. Item 2
....................

SidebarBlocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A sidebar is a short piece of text presented outside the narrative
flow of the main text. The sidebar is normally presented inside a
bordered box to set it apart from the main text.

The sidebar body is treated like a normal section body.

Here's an example:

  .An Example Sidebar
  ************************************************
  Any AsciiDoc SectionBody element (apart from
  SidebarBlocks) can be placed inside a sidebar.
  ************************************************

Which will be rendered like:

.An Example Sidebar
************************************************
Any AsciiDoc SectionBody element (apart from
SidebarBlocks) can be placed inside a sidebar.
************************************************

Sidebar elements are not supported by the LinuxDoc format and sidebar
text appears as part of the main document flow.

[[X26]]
Comment Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CommentBlocks are not processed; they are useful for annotations and
for excluding new or outdated content that you don't want displayed.
Here's and example:

  //////////////////////////////////////////
  CommentBlock contents are not processed by
  asciidoc(1).
  //////////////////////////////////////////

See also <<X25,Comment Lines>>.

Backend Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BackendBlocks are for backend specific markup, text is only subject to
attribute and macro substitution.  BackendBlock content will generally
be backend specific. Here's an example:

  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  <table border="1"><tr>
    <td>Cell 1</td>
    <td>Cell 2</td>
  </tr></table>
  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Quote Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~
QuoteBlocks are used for quoted passages of text. 'attribution' and
'citetitle' named attributes specify the author and source of the
quote (they are equivalent to positional attribute list entries 1 and
2 respectively).  Both attributes are optional and the block body is
treated like a SectionBody. For example:

  [Bertrand Russell, The World of Mathematics (1956)]
  ____________________________________________________________________
  A good notation has subtlety and suggestiveness which at times makes
  it almost seem like a live teacher.
  ____________________________________________________________________

Which is rendered as:

[Bertrand Russell, The World of Mathematics (1956)]
____________________________________________________________________
A good notation has subtlety and suggestiveness which at times makes
it almost seem like a live teacher.
____________________________________________________________________

In this example unquoted positional attributes have been used, the
following quoted positional and named attributes are equivalent (if
the attribute list contained commas then quoting would have been
mandatory):

  ["Bertrand Russell","The World of Mathematics (1956)"]
  [attribution="Bertrand Russell",citetitle="The World of Mathematics (1956)"]

Example Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ExampleBlocks encapsulate the DocBook Example element and are used,
well, for examples. DocBook processors automatically number examples
and generate a 'list of examples' backmatter section.

Example blocks are delimited by lines of equals characters and you can
put any block elements apart from Titles, BlockTitles and Sidebars)
inside an example block.  AsciiDoc example blocks allow <<X22,variant
delimited blocks>>.

As a point of interest, AsciiDoc automatically wraps the following
titled (preceded by a TitleBlock) AsciiDoc elements in a DocBook
example element: LiteralParagraph, LiteralBlock, ListingBlock.

[[X22]]
Variant Blocks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Variant blocks provide a mechanism for varying the behavior of a
delimited block.  If the <<X23,block's definition>> has been assigned
the `variants` option and it's attribute list includes attribute
`\{1}` then it will be used as a prefix for the block's markup
template name -- the name of the markup template is a lowercased
`\{1}block`.

The ExampleBlock is configured as variant block and can be used to
generate admonition blocks (admonitions requiring more than just a
simple admonition paragraph) by prefixing an AttributeList and setting
the first attribute entry to `NOTE`, `TIP`, `WARNING`, `IMPORTANT` or
`CAUTION`.

The following example uses the markup template configuration file
section named `[noteblock]`:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
[NOTE]
.An example note block
=====================================================================
Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis
adolescens.

. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  .. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
  .. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
. Donec eget arcu bibendum
  nunc consequat lobortis.
=====================================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Renders:

[NOTE]
.An example note block
=====================================================================
Qui in magna commodo, est labitur dolorum an. Est ne magna primis
adolescens.

. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
  .. Fusce euismod commodo velit.
  .. Vivamus fringilla mi eu lacus.
. Donec eget arcu bibendum
  nunc consequat lobortis.
=====================================================================

[[X23]]
Block Definitions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As an example, here is the default configuration file ListingBlock
definition:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
[blockdef-listing]
delimiter=^-{3,}$
template=listingblock
presubs=specialcharacters,callouts
---------------------------------------------------------------------

delimiter::
	A Python regular expression that matches the leading and
	trailing block underlines. In the above example a line starting
	with at least three tilde characters.
template::
        The name of the configuration file markup template section
        that will envelope the block contents. The pipe | character is
        substituted for the block contents.
options::
        Allowed values are 'section', 'skip' and 'variants'.
        - If the 'section' option is set the block contents are
          processed as a SectionBody.
        - The 'skip' option causes the block to be treated as a
          comment (see 'CommentBlocks').  'presubs', 'postsubs' and
          'filter' entries are not used when 'section' or 'skip'
          options are set.
        - The 'variants' option enables <<X22,variant blocks>>.

presubs, postsubs::
        A comma separated list of the substitutions that are performed
        on the block contents. Allowed values: 'specialcharacters',
        'quotes', 'specialwords', 'replacements', 'macros',
        'attributes', 'default', 'none'.  If a 'filter' has been
        specified the 'presubs' and 'postsubs' substitutions are
        performed before and after the filter is run respectively.
        The substitutions are processed in the order in which they are
        listed and can appear more than once.
        
filter::
        This optional entry specifies an executable shell command for
        processing block content. The filter command can contain
        attribute references.

DelimitedBlock processing proceeds as follows:

1. Optional 'presubs' substitutions are performed on the block
   contents.
2. If a filter is specified it is executed and the block's contents
   piped to its standard input. The filter output replaces the block
   contents.
3. Optional 'postsubs' substitutions are performed on the block
   contents.
4. The block contents is enveloped by the block's markup template and
   written to the output file.

TIP: Attribute expansion is performed on the block filter command
before it is executed, this is useful for passing arguments to the
filter.


Footnotes
---------
The shipped AsciiDoc configuration includes the `\footnote:[<text>]`
inline macro for generating footnotes. The footnote text can span
multiple lines. Example footnote:

    footnote:[An example footnote.]

Which renders footnote:[An example footnote.].

Footnotes are primarily useful when generating DocBook output --
DocBook conversion programs render footnote outside the primary text
flow.


Indexes
-------
The shipped AsciiDoc configuration includes the inline macros for
generating index entries.

\indexterm:[<primary>,<secondary>,<tertiary>]::
\++<primary>,<secondary>,<tertiary>++::
    This inline macro generates an index term (the <secondary> and
    <tertiary> attributes are optional). For example
    `\indexterm:[Tigers,Big cats]` (or, using the alternative syntax
    `++Tigers,Big cats++`.  Index terms that have secondary and
    tertiary entries also generate separate index terms for the
    secondary and tertiary entries. The index terms appear in the
    index, not the primary text flow.

\indexterm2:[<primary>]::
\+<primary>+::
    This inline macro generates an index term that appears in both the
    index and the primary text flow.  The `<primary>` should not be
    padded to the left or right with white space characters.

Here are some index entry examples taken from the example
`article.txt` and `book.txt` documents in the AsciiDoc `./doc`
distribution directory.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
And now for something completely different: +monkeys+, lions and
tigers (Bengal and Siberian) using the alternative syntax index
entries.
++Big cats,Lions++
++Big cats,Tigers,Bengal Tiger++
++Big cats,Tigers,Siberian Tiger++
Note that multi-entry terms generate separate index entries.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: Index entries only really make sense if you are generating
DocBook markup -- DocBook conversion programs automatically generate
an index at the point an 'Index' section appears in source document
(see the `book.txt` example document in the distribution `./doc`
directory).


Callouts
--------
Callouts are a mechanism for annotating verbatim text (source code,
computer output and user input for example). Callout markers are
placed inside the annotated text while the actual annotations are
presented in a callout list after the annotated text. Here's an
example:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
.MS-DOS directory listing
.....................................................
10/17/97   9:04         <DIR>    bin
10/16/97  14:11         <DIR>    DOS            \<1>
10/16/97  14:40         <DIR>    Program Files
10/16/97  14:46         <DIR>    TEMP
10/17/97   9:04         <DIR>    tmp
10/16/97  14:37         <DIR>    WINNT
10/16/97  14:25             119  AUTOEXEC.BAT   \<2>
 2/13/94   6:21          54,619  COMMAND.COM    \<2>
10/16/97  14:25             115  CONFIG.SYS     \<2>
11/16/97  17:17      61,865,984  pagefile.sys
 2/13/94   6:21           9,349  WINA20.386     \<3>
.....................................................

\<1> This directory holds MS-DOS.
\<2> System startup code for DOS.
\<3> Some sort of Windows 3.1 hack.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Which renders:

.MS-DOS directory listing
.....................................................................
10/17/97   9:04         <DIR>    bin
10/16/97  14:11         <DIR>    DOS            <1>
10/16/97  14:40         <DIR>    Program Files
10/16/97  14:46         <DIR>    TEMP
10/17/97   9:04         <DIR>    tmp
10/16/97  14:37         <DIR>    WINNT
10/16/97  14:25             119  AUTOEXEC.BAT   <2>
 2/13/94   6:21          54,619  COMMAND.COM    <2>
10/16/97  14:25             115  CONFIG.SYS     <2>
11/16/97  17:17      61,865,984  pagefile.sys
 2/13/94   6:21           9,349  WINA20.386     <3>
.....................................................................

<1> This directory holds MS-DOS.
<2> System startup code for DOS.
<3> Some sort of Windows 3.1 hack.

Explanation:

- The callout marks are whole numbers enclosed in angle brackets that
  refer to an item index in the following callout list.
- By default callout marks are confined to LiteralParagraphs,
  LiteralBlocks and ListingBlocks (although this is a configuration
  file option and can be changed).
- Callout list item numbering is fairly relaxed -- list items can
  start with `<n>`, `n>` or `>` where `n` is the optional list item
  number (in the latter case list items starting with a single `>`
  character are implicitly numbered starting at one).
- Callout lists should not be nested -- start list items hard against
  the left margin.
- If you want to present a number inside angle brackets you'll need to
  escape it with a backslash to prevent it being interpreted as a
  callout mark.

Implementation Notes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Callout marks are generated by the 'callout' inline macro while
callout lists are generated using the 'callout' list definition. The
'callout' macro and 'callout' list are special in that they work
together. The 'callout' inline macro is not enabled by the normal
'macros' substitutions option, instead it has it's own 'callouts'
substitution option.

The following attributes are available during inline callout macro
substitution:

`\{index}`::
    The callout list item index inside the angle brackets.
`\{coid}`::
    An identifier formatted like `CO<listnumber>-<index>` that
    uniquely identifies the callout mark. For example `CO2-4`
    identifies the fourth callout mark in the second set of callout
    marks.

The `\{coids}` attribute can be used during callout list item
substitution -- it is a space delimited list of callout IDs that refer
to the explanatory list item.


Macros
------
Macros are a mechanism for substituting parameterized text into output
documents.

Macros have a 'name', a single 'target' argument and an attribute
list.  The default syntax is `<name>:<target>[<attributelist>]` for
inline macros and `<name>::<target>[<attributelist>]` for block macros.
Here are some examples:

  http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/index.html[Asciidoc home page]
  include::chapt1.txt[tabsize=2]
  mailto:srackham@methods.co.nz[]

.Macro behavior
- `<name>` is the macro name. It can only contain letters, digits or
  dash characters and cannot start with a dash.
- The optional `<target>` cannot contain white space characters.
- `<attributelist>` is a <<X21,list of attributes>> enclosed in square
  brackets.
- The attribute list is mandatory even it contains no attributes.
- Expansion of non-system macro references can be prevented by
  prefixing a backslash character.
- Substitution is performed on attribute references prior to macro
  expansion.

Inline Macros
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inline Macros occur in an inline element context. Predefined Inline
macros include 'URL', 'image' and 'link' macros.

URLs
^^^^
Standard http, https, ftp, file and mailto URLs are rendered using
predefined inline macros.

The default AsciiDoc inline macro syntax is very similar to a URL: all
you need to do is append an attribute list containing an optional
caption immediately following the URL. If no text is inside the list
the URL itself supplies the displayed text.

Here are some examples:

  http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/[The AsciiDoc home page]
  mailto:joe.bloggs@foobar.com[email Joe Bloggs]
  mailto:joe.bloggs@foobar.com[]

Which are rendered:

http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/[The AsciiDoc home page]

mailto:joe.bloggs@foobar.com[email Joe Bloggs]

mailto:joe.bloggs@foobar.com[]

TIP: If the `<target>` has space characters they should be replaced by
`%20`. For example `large%20image.png`.

Internal Cross References
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Two AsciiDoc inline macros are provided for creating hypertext links
within an AsciiDoc document. You can use either the standard macro
syntax or the (preferred) alternative.

anchor
++++++
Used to specify hypertext link targets:

  [[<id>,<xreflabel>]]
  anchor:<id>[<xreflabel>]

The `<id>` is a unique identifier that must begin with a letter. The
optional `<xreflabel>` is the text to be displayed by 'xref' macros
with no captions that refer to this anchor. The `<xreflabel>` is only
really useful when generating DocBook output. Example:

  [[X1]]

You may have noticed that the syntax of this inline element is the
same as that of the `BlockId` block element, this is no coincidence
since they do roughly the same job.

xref
++++
Creates a hypertext link to a document anchor.

  <<<id>,<caption>>>
  xref:<id>[<caption>]

The `<id>` refers to an existing anchor `<id>`. The optional
`<caption>` is the link's displayed text. If `<caption>` is not
specified then the `<id>`, enclosed in square brackets, is displayed.
Example:

  <<X15,attribute lists>>

Linking to Local Documents
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hypertext links to files on the local filesystem are specified using
the 'link' inline macro.

  link:<target>[<caption>]

The 'link' macro generates relative URLs. The link macro `<target>` is
the target file name (relative to the file system location of the
referring document). The optional `<caption>` is the link's displayed
text. If `<caption>` is not specified then `<target>` is displayed.
Example:

  link:downloads/foo.zip[download foo.zip]

You can use the `<filename>#<id>` syntax to refer to an anchor within
a target document but this usually only makes sense when targeting
HTML documents.

Images can serve as hyperlinks using the <<X9,`image` macro>>.

[[X9]]
Images
^^^^^^
Inline images are inserted into the output document using the 'image'
macro. The inline syntax is:

  image:<target>[<attributes>]

The contents of the image file `<target>` is displayed. To display the
image it's file format must be supported by the target backend
application. HTML and DocBook applications normally support PNG or JPG
files.

Image elements are not supported by the LinuxDoc format and the
alternative text in macro attribute 1 (if specified) is displayed
instead.

`<target>` file name paths are relative to the location of the
referring document.

.Image macro attributes
- The optional first positional attribute list entry specifies the
  alternative text which is displayed if the output application is
  unable to process the image file. For example:

  image:images/logo.png[Company Logo]

- The optional `width` and `height` named attributes scale the image
  size and can be used in any combination. The following example
  scales the previous example to a height of 32 pixels:

  image:images/logo.png["Company Logo",height=32]

- The optional `link` named attribute is used to link the image to
  an external document. The following example links a screenshot
  thumbnail to a full size version:

  image:screen-thumbnail.png[height=32,link="screen.png"]

Block Macros
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Block macro reference must be contained in a single line separated
either side by a blank line or a block delimiter.

Block macros behave just like Inline macros, with the following
differences:

- They occur in a block context.
- The default syntax is `<name>::<target>[<attributelist>]` (two
  colons, not one).
- Markup template section names end in `-blockmacro` instead of
  `-inlinemacro`.

Images
^^^^^^
Formal images are inserted into the output document using the 'image'
macro. The syntax is:

  image::<target>[<attributes>]

In all respects, apart from context, the use of the block `image`
macro is exactly the same as it's <<X9,inline counterpart>>.

The image can be titled by preceding the `image` macro with a
'BlockTitle'. DocBook processors can normally be configured to include
titled images in an automatically generated 'List of Figures'.

For example:

  .Main circuit board
  image::images/layout.png[J14P main circuit board]

[[X25]]
Comment Lines
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Single lines starting with two forward slashes hard up against the
left margin are treated as comments and are stripped from the output.
Comment lines have been implemented as a block macro and are only
valid in a block context -- they are not treated as comments inside
paragraphs or delimited blocks. For example:

  // This is a comment.

See also <<X26,Comment Blocks>>.


System Macros
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
System macros are block macros that perform a predefined task which is
hardwired into the asciidoc(1) program.

- You can't escape system macros with a leading backslash character
  (as you can with other macros).
- The task performed by a system macro is built into the asciidoc(1)
  program so they don't have configuration file substitution section
  and although you can customize the syntax you cannot change the
  macro name or it's behavior.

Include Macros
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
These system macros include the contents of a named file in the
source document; it's as if the included file were part of the parent
document.

There are two include macros: `include` which allows nested include
macros and `include1` which does not allow nested includes.

.Include macro examples
=====================================================================
....................................
  include::chapter1.txt[tabsize=4]

  +++++++++++++++++++++++
  include1::table6.html[]
  +++++++++++++++++++++++
....................................
  
- `chapter1.txt` is processed exactly as if its text were part of the
  parent document except that tabs are expanded to 4 characters.
- Since it is enclosed in a `BackendBlock` the text from `table6.html`
  is included and written to the output without any further
  processing.
=====================================================================

.Include macro behavior
- If the included file name is specified with a relative path then the
  path is relative to the location of the referring document file.
- Include macros can appear inside configuration files.
- Files included from within `DelimitedBlocks` are read to completion
  to avoid false end-of-block underline termination.
- File inclusion is limited to a depth of 5 to catch recursive loops.
- Attribute references are expanded inside the include `target`; if an
  an attribute is undefined then the included file is silently
  skipped.
- The 'tabsize' macro attribute sets the the number of space
  characters to be used for tab expansion in the included file.

Conditional Inclusion Macros
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lines of text in the source document can be selectively included or
excluded from processing based on the the existence (or not) of a
document attribute.  There are two forms of conditional inclusion
macro usage, the first includes document text between the `ifdef` and
`endif` macros if a document attribute is defined:

  ifdef::<attribute>[]
  :
  endif::<attribute>[]

The second for includes document text between the `ifndef` and `endif`
macros if the attribute is not defined:

  ifndef::<attribute>[]
  :
  endif::<attribute>[]

`<attribute>` is an attribute name which is optional in the trailing
`endif` macro.

Take a look at the `*.conf` configuration files in the asciidoc(1)
program directory for examples.

`eval`, `sys` and `sys2` System Macros
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
These system macros exhibit the same behavior as their same named
<<X24, system attribute references>>. The difference is that they
are expanded globally, not just in an inline attribute context.

The following example displays a directory listing as a literal block:

  --------------------
  sys::[ls -ltr *.txt]
  --------------------


Macro Definitions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Each entry in the configuration `[macros]` section is a macro
definition which can take one of the following forms:

`<pattern>=<name>`::
	Inline macro definition.
`<pattern>=#<name>`::
	Block macro definition.
`<pattern>=+<name>`::
	System macro definition.
`<pattern>`::
	Delete the existing macro with this `<pattern>`.

`<pattern>` is a Python regular expression and `<name>` is the name of
a markup template. If `<name>` is omitted then it is the value of the
named regular expression match group named 'name'.

.Here's what happens during macro substitution

- Each contextually relevant macro 'pattern' from the `[macros]`
  section is matched against the input source line.
- If a match is found the text to be substituted is loaded from a
  configuration markup template section named like
  `<name>-inlinemacro` or `<name>-blockmacro` (depending on the macro
  type).  If the macro definition does not explicitly specify the
  macro name then it is determined by the value of the macro pattern's
  matched 'name' group.
- Global and AttributeList attributes are substituted in the macro's
  markup template.
- The substituted template replaces the macro reference in the output
  document.


Tables
------
Tables are the most complex AsciiDoc elements and this section is
quite long. footnote:[The current table syntax is overly complicated
and unwieldy to edit, a more usable syntax will appear in future
versions of AsciiDoc.]

NOTE: AsciiDoc generates nice HTML tables, but the current crop of
commonly deployed DocBook stylesheets render tables with varying
degrees of success. Use tables only when really necessary.

Example Tables
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following annotated examples are all you'll need to start creating
your own tables.

The only non-obvious thing you'll need to remember are the column stop
characters:

- Backtick (`) -- align left.
- Single quote (') -- align right.
- Period (.) -- align center.

Simple table:

  `---`---
  1   2
  3   4
  5   6
  --------

Output:

`---`---
1   2
3   4
5   6
--------

Table with title, header and footer:

  .An example table
  [grid="all"]
  '---------.--------------
  Column 1   Column 2
  -------------------------
  1          Item 1
  2	     Item 2
  3	     Item 3
  -------------------------
  6	    Three items
  -------------------------

Output:

.An example table
[grid="all"]
`-----------.--------------
Column 1     Column 2
---------------------------
1            Item 1
2	     Item 2
3	     Item 3
---------------------------
6	    Three items
---------------------------

Four columns totaling 15% of the 'pagewidth', CSV data:

  [frame="all"]
  ````~15
  1,2,3,4
  a,b,c,d
  A,B,C,D
  ~~~~~~~~

Output:

[frame="all"]
````~15
1,2,3,4
a,b,c,d
A,B,C,D
~~~~~~~~

A table with a numeric ruler and externally sourced CSV data:

  [frame="all", grid="all"]
  .15`20`25`20`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  ID,Customer Name,Contact Name,Customer Address,Phone
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  include::customers.csv[]
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Renders:

[frame="all", grid="all"]
.15`20`25`20`~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ID,Customer Name,Contact Name,Customer Address,Phone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
include::customers.csv[]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AsciiDoc Table Block Elements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This sub-section details the AsciiDoc source file table format.

  Table  ::= (Ruler,Header?,Body,Footer?)
  Header ::= (Row+,Underline)
  Footer ::= (Row+,Underline)
  Body   ::= (Row+,Underline)
  Row    ::= (Data+)

A table is terminated when the table underline is followed by a blank
line or an end of file. Table underlines which separate table headers,
bodies and footers should not be followed by a blank line.

Ruler
^^^^^
The first line of the table is called the 'Ruler'. The Ruler specifies
which configuration file table definition to use, column widths,
column alignments and the overall table width.

There are two ruler formats:

Character ruler::
	The column widths are specified by the number of table fill
	characters between column stop characters.
Numeric ruler::
  	The column widths are specified numerically. If a column width
	is omitted the previous width is used. In the degenerate case
	of no widths being specified columns are allocated equal
	widths.

The ruler format can be summarized as:

  ruler ::= ((colstop,(colwidth,fillchar+)?)+, fillchar+, tablewidth?

- The 'ruler' starts with a column stop character (designating the
  start of the first column).
- Column stop characters specify the start and alignment of each
  column:
  * Backtick (`) -- align left.
  * Single quote (') -- align right.
  * Period (.) -- align center.
- In the case of 'fixed' format tables the ruler column widths specify
  source row data column boundaries.
- The optional 'tablewidth' is a number representing the size of the
  output table relative to the 'pagewidth'. If 'tablewidth' is less
  than one then it is interpreted as a fraction of the page width; if
  it is greater than one then it is interpreted as a percentage of
  the page width. If 'tablewidth' is not specified then the table
  occupies the full 'pagewidth' (numeric rulers) or the relative width
  of the ruler compared to the 'textwidth' (character rulers).

Attribute List
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following optional table attributes can be specified in a
table's <<X21,AttributeList>>:

separator::
    The default DSV table form colon separator can be changed using
    the 'separator' attribute. For example: `[separator="|"]`.

frame::
  Defines the table border and can take the following values: 'topbot'
  (top and bottom), 'all' (all sides), 'none' and 'sides' (left and
  right sides). The default value is 'topbot'.

grid::
  Defines which ruler lines are drawn between table rows and columns.
  The 'grid' attribute value can be any of the following values:
  'none', 'cols', 'rows' and 'all'. The default value is 'none'. For
  example `[frame="all", grid="none"]`.

You can also use an AttributeList to override the following table
definition and ruler parameters: 'format', 'subs', 'tablewidth'.

Underline
^^^^^^^^^
A table 'Underline' consists of a line of three or more 'fillchar'
characters which are end delimiters for table header, footer and body
sections.

Markup Attributes
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following attributes are automatically available inside table tag
and markup templates.

cols::
    The number of columns in the table.

colalign::
    Column alignment assumes one of three values ('left', 'right' or
    'center'). The value is determined by the corresponding ruler
    column stop character (only valid inside 'colspec' tags).

colwidth::
    The output column widths are calculated integers (only valid
    inside 'colspec' tags).

format::
    The table definition 'format' value (can be overridden with
    attribute list entry).

subs::
    The table definition 'subs' value (can be overridden with
    attribute list entry).

tablewidth::
    The ruler 'tablewidth' value (can be overridden with attribute
    list entry).

pagewidth::
    The 'pagewidth' miscellaneous configuration option.

pageunits::
    The 'pageunits' miscellaneous configuration option.

The 'colwidth' value is calculated as (`N` is the ruler column width
number and `M` is the sum of the ruler column widths):

  ( N / M ) * pagewidth

If the ruler 'tablewidth' was specified the column width is multiplied
again by this value.

There is one exception: character rulers that have no 'pagewidth'
specified. In this case the 'colwidth' value is calculated as (where
`N` is the column character width measured on the table ruler):

  ( N / textwidth ) * pagewidth

Row and Data Elements
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Each table row consists of a line of text containing the same number
of 'Data' items as there are columns in the table,

Lines ending in a backslash character are continued on the next line.

Each 'Data' item is an AsciiDoc substitutable string. The substitutions
performed are specified by the 'subs' table definition entry. Data
cannot contain AsciiDoc block elements.

The format of the row is determined by the table definition 'format'
value:

fixed::
      Row data items are assigned by chopping the row up at ruler
      column width boundaries.
csv::
      Data items are assigned the parsed CSV (Comma Separated Values)
      data.
dsv::
      The DSV (Delimiter Separated Values) format is a common UNIX
      tabular text file format.
      - The separator character is a colon (although this can be set
	to any letter using the 'separator' table attribute).
      - Common C-style backslash escapes are supported.
      - Blank lines are skipped.

Table Configuration File Definitions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read on if you want to modify existing table behavior or create your
own table definitions.

A table definition consists of two configuration file sections:

1. A `[tabledef-*]` section specifying the AsciiDoc source syntax and
   content format plus the table's backend header, body and footer
   markup.
2. A table markup template section (the `template` entry from the
   table definition section) which assembles header, body and footer
   parts into a complete table.

The easiest way to get a feel for how it all fits together is to take
a look at the distributed AsciiDoc table definitions in the
`asciidoc.conf` and backend configuration files.

Backend independent `[tabledef-*]` section entries are:

fillchar::
	A single character that fills source table ruler and underline
	lines.
subs::
	A list of AsciiDoc substitution options specifying the
	substitutions, and substitution order, performed on table data
	items. If undefined defaults to the default AsciiDoc
	substitutions.
format::
	The source row data format ('fixed', 'csv' or 'dsv').

Backend specific `[tabledef-*]` section entries are:

section::
	The name of the table template section.
comspec::
	The table 'comspec' tag definition.
headrow, footrow, bodyrow::
	Table header, footer and body row tag definitions. 'headrow'
	and 'footrow' table definition entries default to row if
	undefined.
headdata, footdata, bodydata::
	Table header, footer and body data tag definitions. 'headdata'
	and 'footdata' table definition entries default to data if
	undefined.

The following attributes are available to the table markup template:

comspecs::
	Expands to N substituted 'comspec' tags where N is the number
	of columns.
headrows, footrows, bodyrows::
	These references expand to sets of substituted header, footer
	and body rows as defined by the corresponding row and data tag
	definitions.

[[X4]]
In addition tables are affected by the following `[miscellaneous]`
configuration file entries:

textwidth::
	The page width (in characters) of the source text. This
	setting is compared to the the table ruler width when
	calculating the relative size of character ruler tables on the
	output page.
pagewidth::
	This integer value is the printable width of the output media.
	Used to calculate 'colwidth' and 'tablewidth' substitution
	values.
pageunits::
	The units of width in output markup width attribute values.

.Table definition behavior
- The output markup generation is specifically designed to work with
  the HTML and CALS (DocBook) table models, but should be adaptable to
  most XML table schema.
- Table definitions can be "mixed in" from multiple cascading
  configuration files.
- New table definitions inherit the default table definition
  ('[tabledef-default]') so you only need to override those conf file
  entries that require modification when defining a new table type.


[[X1]]
Manpage Documents
-----------------
Sooner or later, if you program for a UNIX environment, you're going
to have to write a man page.

By observing a couple of additional conventions you can compose
AsciiDoc files that will translate to a DocBook refentry (man page)
document.  The resulting DocBook file can then be translated to the
native roff man page format (or other formats).

For example, the `asciidoc.1.txt` file in the AsciiDoc distribution
`./doc` directory was used to generate both
`asciidoc.1.css-embedded.html` HTML file and (via the `xmlto(1)`
command) the `asciidoc.1` roff formatted `asciidoc(1)` man page.

To find out more about man pages view the `man(7)` manpage
(`man 7 man` command).


Document Heading
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The document Header is mandatory. The title line contains the man page
name followed immediately by the manual section number in brackets,
for example 'ASCIIDOC(1)'. The title name should not contain white
space and the manual section number is a single digit optionally
followed by a single character.

The NAME Section
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first manpage section is mandatory and must be called 'NAME' and
contain a single paragraph (usually a single line) consisting of a
list of one or more comma separated command name(s) separated from the
command purpose by a dash character. The dash must have at least one
white space character on either side. For example:

  printf, fprintf, sprintf - print formatted output

The SYNOPSIS Section
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The second manpage section is mandatory and must be called 'SYNOPSIS'.


[[X7]]
Configuration Files
-------------------
AsciiDoc source file syntax and output file markup is largely
controlled by a set of cascading, text based, configuration files.  At
runtime The AsciiDoc default configuration files are combined with
optional document and user specific configuration files.

Configuration File Format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Configuration files contain named sections. Each section begins with a
section name in square brackets []. The section body consists of the
lines of text between adjacent section headings.

- Section names consist of one or more alphanumeric, underscore or
  dash characters and cannot begin or end with a dash.
- Lines starting with a hash character "#" are treated as comments and
  ignored.
- Same named sections and section entries override sections and
  section entries from previously loaded configuration files (this is
  sometimes referred to as 'cascading').  Consequently, downstream
  configuration files need only contain those sections or section
  entries that need to be overridden.
- Same named sections from different documents are merged
  automatically.

TIP: When creating custom configuration files you only need to include
the sections and entries that differ from the default configuration.

TIP: The best way to learn about configuration files is to read the
default configuration files in the asciidoc(1) program directory along
with generated backend output and the backend markup spec. You view
configuration file processing by turning on the asciidoc(1) `-v`
command-line option.

Markup Template Sections
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Markup template sections supply backend markup for translating
AsciiDoc elements.  Since the text is normally backend dependent
you'll find these sections in the backend specific configuration
files. A markup template section body can contain:

- Backend markup
- Attribute references
- A document content placeholder

The document content placeholder is a single | character and is
replaced by text from the source document.  Use the `\{brvbar}`
attribute reference if you need a literal | character.

Special Sections
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc reserves the following predefined, or Special, section names
for specific purposes:

miscellaneous::
	Configuration options that don't belong anywhere else.
attributes::
	Named substitution values.
specialcharacters::
	Special characters reserved by the backend markup.
tags::
	Markup tag definitions used by AsciiDoc markup mechanisms.
quotes::
	Definitions for inline character formatting quoting.
specialwords::
	Lists of words and phrases singled out for special markup.
replacements::
	Find and replace substitution definitions.
specialsections::
	Used to single out section names for special markup.
macros::
	Macro syntax definitions.
titles:
	Heading, section and block title parameters.
paradef*::
	Paragraph element definitions.
blockdef*::
	DelimitedBlock element definitions.
listdef*::
	List element definitions.
tabledef*::
	Table element definitions.

Each line of text in a Special section is a 'section entry'. Section
entries can take the following forms:

'name=value'::
	The entry value is set to 'value'.
'name='::
	The entry value is set to a zero length string.
'name'::
	The entry is undefined (deleted from the configuration).

.Section entry behavior
- All equals characters inside the `name` must be escaped with a
  backslash character.
- `name` and `value` are stripped of leading and trailing white space.
- Attribute names, tag entry names and markup template section names
  consist of one or more alphanumeric, underscore or dash characters.
  Names should begin or end with a dash.

Miscellaneous
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The optional `[miscellaneous]` section specifies the following
`name=value` options:

newline::
	Output file line termination characters. Can include any
	valid Python string escape sequences. The default value is
	`\r\n` (carriage return, line feed). Should not be quoted or
	contain explicit spaces (use `\x20` instead). For example:

	$ asciidoc -a 'newline=\n' -b docbook mydoc.txt

outfilesuffix::
	The default extension for the output file, for example
	`outfilesuffix=.html`. Defaults to backend name.
tabsize::
	The number of spaces to expand tab characters, for example
	`tabsize=4`. Defaults to 8. A 'tabsize' of zero suppresses tab
	expansion (useful when piping included files through block
	filters). Included files can override this option with the
	'include' macro 'tabsize' attribute list entry.
textwidth, pagewidth, pageunits::
	These global table related options are documented in the
	<<X4,Table Configuration File Definitions>> sub-section.

NOTE: `[miscellaneous]` configuration file entries can be set using
the asciidoc(1) `-a` command-line option and perform the usual
attribute substitutions.

Titles
^^^^^^
sectiontitle::
        Two line section title pattern. The entry value is a Python
        regular expression containing the named group 'title'.

underlines::
	A comma separated list of document and section title
	underline character pairs starting with the Header
	underline and ending with Section level 4 underline. The
	default setting is:

        underlines="==","--","~~","^^","++"

sect0...sect4::
        One line section title patterns. The entry value is a Python
        regular expression containing the named group 'title'.

blocktitle::
        BlockTitle line title pattern.  The entry value is a Python
        regular expression containing the named group 'title'. The
        'title' group's matching value is used as the following
        element's title.

	underlines="==","--","~~","^^","++"

subs::
	A comma separated list of substitutions that are performed on
	document Header and Section titles. The default value for this
	entry is
	'specialcharacters,quotes,replacements,attributes,macros'.

Tags
^^^^
The `[tags]` section contains AsciiDoc tag definitions (one per
line). Tags are used to translate AsciiDoc elements to backend
markup.

An AsciiDoc tag definition is formatted like
`<tagname>=<starttag>|<endtag>`. For example:

  emphasis=<em>|</em>

In this example asciidoc(1) replaces the | character with the
emphasized text from the AsciiDoc input file and writes the result to
the output file.

Use the `\{brvbar}` attribute reference if you need to include a | pipe
character inside tag text.

Attributes Section
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The optional `[attributes]` section contains attribute entries.

If the attribute value requires leading or trailing spaces then the
text text should be enclosed in double-quote (") characters.

To delete a attribute insert a name only entry in a downstream
configuration file or use the asciidoc(1) `-a ^name` command-line
option (the attribute name is prefixed with a ^ character to delete
it).

Special Characters
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The `[specialcharacters]` section specifies how to translate each of
the characters reserved by the backend markup. Each translation is
specified on a single line formatted like:

  special_character=translated_characters

Special characters are normally confined to those that resolve
markup ambiguity (in the case of SGML/XML markups the ampersand, less
than and greater than characters). For example:

  <=&lt;

When special character substitution is enabled all occurrences of `<`
will be replaced by `&lt;`.

Quoted Text
^^^^^^^^^^^
The `[quotes]` section defines the text formatting markup characters
that are used to envelope words and word phrases. Each section entry
value has a corresponding tag entry from the `[tags]` section. The
entry name defines the one (or more) characters that quote the text. In this
example a double underscore defines underlined HTML markup:

  [quotes]
  __=underline

  [tags]
  underline=<u>|</u>

You can specify the left and right quote strings separately by
separating them with a | character, for example:

  [quotes]
  ((|))=gui

If you set the tag to `none` then a blank string will be substituted
for the quoted text which has the effect of dropping the quote from
the output document.

.Quoted text behavior
- Quote characters must be non-alphanumeric.
- To minimize quoting ambiguity try not to use the same quote
  characters in different quote types.

Special Words
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The `[specialwords]` section is used to single out words and phrases
that you want to consistently highlight in some way throughout your
document without having to repeatedly specify the markup. The name of
each entry corresponds to a markup template section and the entry value
consists of a list of words and phrases to be highlighted. For
example:

  [specialwords]
  strongwords=NOTE: TODO:

  [strongwords]
  <strong>{words}</strong>

The examples specifies that any occurrence of `NOTE:` or `TODO:`
should appear in a bold font.

Words and word phrases are treated as Python regular expressions: for
example, the word `^NOTE:` would only match `NOTE:` if appeared at
the start of a line.

AsciiDoc comes with three built-in Special Word types:
'emphasizedwords', 'monospacedwords' and 'strongwords'. Each type has
a corresponding markup template section. Edit the configuration files
to customize existing Special Words and to add new ones.

.Special word behavior
- Word list entries must be separated by space characters.
- Word list entries with embedded spaces should be enclosed in quotation (")
  characters.
- A `[specialwords]` section entry of the form `name=list` adds words
  in 'list' to existing `name` entries.
- A `[specialwords]` section entry of the form `name` undefines
  (deletes) all existing `name` words.
- Since word list entries are processed as Python regular expressions
  you need to be careful to escape regular expression special
  characters.
- By default Special Words are substituted before Inline macros, this
  may lead to undesirable consequences. For example the special word
  `foobar` would be expanded inside the macro call
  `\http://www.foobar.com[]`.  A possible solution is to emphasize
  whole words only using the `\bfoobar\b` regular expression.

[[X10]]
Replacements
^^^^^^^^^^^^
`[replacements]` configuration file entries specify find and replace
text formatted like:

  find_pattern=replacement_text
  
The find text can be a Python regular expression; the replace text can
contain Python regular expression group references.

Use Replacement shortcuts for often used macro references, for
example:

  \.NEW\.=image:smallnew.gif[New!]

.Replacement behavior
- If the find or replace text has leading or trailing spaces then the
  text should be enclosed in quotation (") characters.
- Since the find text is processed as a regular expression you need
  to be careful to escape regular expression special characters.

Configuration File Names and Locations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Configuration files have a `.conf` file name extension; they are
loaded implicitly (using predefined file names and locations) or
explicitly (using the asciidoc(1) `-f` command-line option).

Implicit configuration files are loaded from the following directories
in the following order:

1. The `/etc/asciidoc` directory (if it exists).
2. The asciidoc(1) program directory.
3. The `.asciidoc` directory in the user's home directory (if it
   exists).
4. The AsciiDoc source file directory.

The following implicit configuration files from each of the above
locations are loaded in the following order:

1. `asciidoc.conf`
2. `<backend>.conf`
3. `<backend>-<doctype>.conf`

Where `<backend>` and `<doctype>` are values specified by the
asciidoc(1) `-b` and `-d` command-line options.

Finally, configuration files named like the source file will be
automatically loaded if they are found in the source file directory.
For example if the source file is `mydoc.txt` and the `-b html` option
is used then asciidoc(1) will look for `mydoc.conf` and
`mydoc-html.conf` in that order.

Implicit configuration files that don't exist will be silently
skipped.

The user can explicitly specify additional configuration files using
the asciidoc(1) `-f` command-line option.  The `-f` option can be
specified multiple times, in which case configuration files will be
processed in the order they appear on the command-line.

For example, when we translate our AsciiDoc document `mydoc.txt` with:

  $ asciidoc -b xhtml -f extra.conf mydoc.txt

Configuration files (those that exist) will be processed in the
following order:

1. First default global configuration files from the asciidoc program
   directory are loaded:

   asciidoc.conf
   xhtml.conf
   xhtml-article.conf

2. Then, from the users home `~/.asciidoc` directory.  This is were
   you put customization specific to  your own asciidoc documents:

   asciidoc.conf
   xhtml.conf
   xhtml-article.conf

3. Next from the source document project directory (the first three
   apply to all documents in the directory, the last two are specific
   to the mydoc.txt document):

   asciidoc.conf
   xhtml.conf
   xhtml-article.conf
   mydoc.conf
   mydoc-xhtml.conf

4. Finally the file specified by the `-f` command-line option is
   loaded:

   extra.conf

TIP: Use the asciidoc(1) `-v` command-line option to see which
configuration files are loaded and the order of they are loaded.


Document Attributes
-------------------
A document attribute is comprised of a 'name' and a textual 'value'
and is used for textual substitution in AsciiDoc documents and
configuration files. An attribute reference (an attribute name
enclosed in braces) is replaced by it's their corresponding attribute
value.

There are four sources of document attributes (from highest to lowest
precedence):

- Command-line attributes.
- AttributeEntry, AttributeList, Macro and BlockId elements.
- Configuration file `[attributes]` sections.
- Intrinsic attributes.

Within each of these divisions the last processed entry takes
precedence.

IMPORTANT: If an attribute is not defined then the line containing the
attribute reference is dropped and is not written to the output file.
This property is used extensively in AsciiDoc configuration files to
facilitate conditional markup generation.


[[X18]]
Attribute Entries
-----------------
The `AttributeEntry` block element allows document attributes to be
assigned within an AsciiDoc document. Attribute entries are added to
the global document attributes dictionary. The attribute name/value
syntax is a single line like:

  :<name>: <value>

For example:

  :Author Initials: JB

This will set an attribute reference `\{authorinitials}` to the value
'JB' in the current document.

.AttributeEntry properties
- The attribute entry line begins with colon -- no white space allowed
  in left margin.
- AsciiDoc converts the `<name>` to a legal attribute name (lower
  case, alphanumeric and dash characters only -- all other characters
  deleted). This allows more reader friendly text to be used.
- Leading and trailing white space is stripped from the `<value>`.
- If the `<value>` is blank then the corresponding attribute value is
  set to an empty string.
- Special characters in the entry `<value>` are substituted. To
  included special characters use `\{gt}`, `\{lt}`, `\{amp}` attribute
  references.
- Attribute references contained in the entry `<value>` will be
  expanded.
- Attribute entries in the document Header are available for header
  markup template substitution.
- Attribute elements override configuration file and intrinsic
  attributes but do not override command-line attributes.

NOTE: The `author` attribute as a special case, it also sets the
`firstname` attribute and (if specified) `surname` and
`authorinitials` attributes.

Here's another example:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
AsciiDoc User Manual
====================
:Author:    Stuart Rackham
:Email:     srackham@methods.co.nz
:Date:      April 23, 2004
:Revision:  5.1.1
:Key words: linux, ralink, debian, wireless
:Revision history:
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Which create these attributes:

  {author}, {firstname}, {surname}, {authorinitials}, {email},
  {date}, {revision}, {keywords}, {revisionhistory}

The preceding example is equivalent to the standard AsciiDoc two line
document header.  Actually it's a little bit different with the
addition of the `\{keywords}` and `\{revisionhistory}` footnote:[The
existence of a `\{revisionhistory}` attribute causes a revision
history file (if it exists) to be included in DocBook outputs. If a
file named like `\{docname}-revhistory.xml` exists in the document's
directory then it will be added to the DocBook header (see the
`./doc/asciidoc-revhistory.xml` example that comes with the AsciiDoc
distribution).] attributes.

[TIP]
=====================================================================
To delete an attribute using the document Attribute element -- set it
to an undefined attribute, for example:

  :Delete me: {undefined-attribute}
=====================================================================
  

[[X21]]
Attribute Lists
---------------
An attribute list is a comma separated list of attribute values. The
entire list is enclosed in square brackets.  Attribute lists are used
to pass parameters to macros and block elements.

The list consists of zero or more positional attribute values followed
by zero or more named attribute values. Here are three examples:

  [Hello]
  [Bertrand Russell, The World of Mathematics (1956)]
  ["22 times", backcolor="#0e0e0e", options="noborders,wide"]

.Attribute list properties
- Positional attributes are referred to as `\{1}`,`\{2}`,`\{3}`,...
- Attribute `\{0}` refers to the entire list (excluding the enclosing
  square brackets).
- Quoted attribute values have the same syntax and semantics as Python
  string literals.
- If a named named `options` attribute is present it is processed as a
  comma separated list of attributes with zero length string values.
  For example `[options="opt1,opt2,opt3"]` is equivalent to
  `[opt1="",opt2="",opt2=""]`.
- List attributes take precedence over existing attributes.
- List attributes are not available to document content.
- The use made of list attributes is determined by their usage in the
  associated block element's markup template.

TIP: To view processed attribute list values use the asciidoc(1) `-v`
command-line option.

Macro Attribute lists
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All macros calls are suffixed with an attribute list. The list may be
empty but it cannot be omitted. List entries are used to pass
attribute values for macro substitution.

AttributeList Element
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An attribute list on a line by itself constitutes an AttributeList
block element, it's function is to parameterize the following block
element. The list attributes are passed to the next block element for
markup template substitution.

List attributes are available in Title, Paragraph, DelimitedBlock,
List and Table element markup templates.


Intrinsic Attributes
--------------------
Intrinsic attributes are created automatically from document header
parameters, asciidoc(1) command-line arguments, environment parameters
along with attributes defined in the default configuration files.
Here's the list of predefined intrinsic attributes:

  {asciidoc-version}	the version of asciidoc(1)
  {asciidoc-dir}	the asciidoc(1) application directory
  {user-dir}		the ~/.asciidoc directory (if it exists)
  {authorinitials}	author initials (from document header)
  {author}		author's full name ({firstname} {middlename}
                        {lastname})
  {authored}            empty string '' if {author} or {email} defined,
                        otherwise undefined.
  {date}		document date (from document header)
  {doctitle}		document title (from document header)
  {email}		author's email address (from document header)
  {firstname}		author first name (from document header)
  {lastname}		author last name (from document header)
  {localdate}		the current date
  {localtime}		the current time
  {manname}		manpage name (defined in NAME section)
  {manpurpose}		manpage (defined in NAME section)
  {mantitle}		manpage title (from document header)
  {manvolnum}		manpage volume number (1..8) (from document header)
  {middlename}		author middle name (from document header)
  {revision}		document revision number (from document header)
  {title}               section title (defined titled element substitution
                        sections)
  {sectnum}             section number (defined in section titles
                        markup template sections)
  {amp}         	ampersand (&) character
  {lt}                  less than (<) character
  {gt}                  greater than (>) character
  {brvbar}		broken vertical bar (|) character
  {empty}		empty string ''
  {infile}		input file name
  {outfile}		output file name
  {docdir}              document directory name (no trailing separator)
  {docname}             document file name without extension
  {doctype}		document type specified by `-d` option
  {filetype}		output file name file extension
  {backend}		document backend specified by `-b` option
  {backend-<backend>}	empty string ''
  {<backend>-<doctype>}	empty string ''
  {doctype-<doctype>}	empty string ''
  {filetype-<fileext>}	empty string ''
  {basebackend}		html, css, docbook or linuxdoc
  {basebackend-<base>}	empty string ''
  {imagesdir}           directory containing admonition icons (HTML
                        backend; if undefined defaults to images)
  {stylesdir}           directory containing CSS stylesheets (CSS
                        backends; if undefined defaults to .)

The entries that translate to blank strings are designed to be used
for conditional text inclusion (remember that if an undefined
attribute is referenced then the containing line will be dropped from
the output). You can also use the `ifdef`, `ifndef` and `endif`
System macros for conditional inclusion. footnote:[Conditional
inclusion using `ifdef` and `ifndef` macros differs from attribute
conditional inclusion in that the former occurs when the file is read
while the latter occurs when the contents are written.]


Attribute References
--------------------
An attribute references is an attribute name (possibly followed by an
expression) enclosed in braces.  When an attribute reference is
encountered it is evaluated and replaced by its corresponding text
value. If there is no corresponding text value the attribute is said
to be undefined and the line containing the attribute is dropped.

There are three types of attribute reference: 'Simple', 'Conditional'
and 'System'.

.Attribute reference behavior
- You can suppress attribute reference expansion by placing a
  backslash character immediately in front of the opening brace
  character.
- By default attribute references are not expanded in
  LiteralParagraphs, ListingBlocks or LiteralBlocks.
- To include a closing brace character inside a glossary reference
  escape it with a backslash character.

Simple Attributes References
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Simple attribute references take the form `\{<name>}`. If the
attribute name is defined its text value is substituted otherwise the
line containing the reference is dropped from the output. 

Conditional Attribute References
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Conditional attribute references return text that is predicated on the
existence of an attribute. Conditional attribute references take the
following forms:

`\{<name>=<value>}`::
        `<value>` is substituted if the attribute `<name>` undefined
        otherwise it's value is substituted. `<value>` can contain
        simple attribute references.

`\{<name>?<value>}`::
        `<value>` is substituted if the attribute `<name>` is defined
        otherwise an empty string is substituted.  `<value>` can
        contain simple attribute references.

`\{<name>!<value>}`::
        `<value>` is substituted if the attribute `<name>` is
        undefined otherwise an empty string is substituted.  `<value>`
        can contain simple attribute references.

`\{<name>#<value>}`::
        `<value>` is substituted if the attribute `<name>` is defined
        otherwise the undefined attribute entry causes the containing
        line to be dropped.  `<value>` can contain simple attribute
        references.

`\{<name>%<value>}`::
        `<value>` is substituted if the attribute `<name>` is not
        defined otherwise the containing line is dropped.  `<value>`
        can contain simple attribute references.

[[X24]]
System Attribute References
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
System attribute references generate the attribute text value by
executing a predefined action parameterized by a single argument. The
syntax is `{<action>:<argument>}`.

`\{eval:<expression>}`::
	Substitutes the result of the Python `<expression>`. If
	`<expression>` evaluates to None the line containing the
	reference is dropped from the output file.

`\{include:<filename>}`::
        Substitutes contents of the file named `<filename>`.
        - The included file is read at the time of attribute
          substitution not when the file is read (as is the case with
          `include` block macros) -- this can be significant when
          dealing with configuration files.
        - If the file does not exist a warning is emitted and the line
          containing the reference is dropped from the output file.
        - Tabs are expanded based on the current 'tabsize'.

`\{sys:<command>}`::
	Substitutes the stdout generated by the execution of the shell
	`<command>`.

`\{sys2:<command>}`::
	Substitutes the stdout and stderr generated by the execution
	of the shell `<command>`.

.System reference behavior
- System attribute arguments can contain non-system attribute
  references.
- Closing brace characters inside system attribute arguments must be
  escaped them with a backslash.


Filters
-------
Filters are external shell commands used to process Paragraph and
DelimitedBlock content; they are specified in configuration file
Paragraph and DelimitedBlock definitions.

There's nothing special about the filters, they're just standard UNIX
filters: they read text from the standard input, process it, and write
it to the standard output.

Attribute substitution is performed on the filter command prior to
execution -- attributes can be used to pass parameters from the
AsciiDoc source document to the filter.

NOTE: Filter functionality is currently only available on POSIX
platforms (this includes Cygwin).

Filter Search Paths
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If the filter command does not specify a directory path then
asciidoc(1) searches for the command:

- First it looks in the user's `$HOME/.asciidoc/filters` directory.
- Next the `/etc/asciidoc/filters` directory is searched.
- Then it looks in the asciidoc(1) `./filters` directory.
- Finally it relies on the executing shell to search the environment
  search path (`$PATH`).

Filter Configuration Files
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since filters are normally part of new Paragraph or DelimitedBlock
definitions they are usually accompanied by a configuration file.

asciidoc(1) auto-loads all `.conf` files found in the user's
`$HOME/.asciidoc/filters` directory and the asciidoc(1) `./filters`
subdirectory.

Code Filter
~~~~~~~~~~~
AsciiDoc comes with a simple minded `code-filter` for highlighting
source code keywords and comments. footnote:[The example code filter
shipped with AsciiDoc is provided as an example filter and is by no
means meant to be a production quality syntax highlighter] You can
find the `code-filter` in the AsciiDoc distribution `./filters`
subdirectory (read the `./filters/code-filter-readme.txt` file for
instructions).

The following example highlights Python keywords in the block's
content:

  .Code filter example
  [python]
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  ''' A multi-line
      comment.'''
  def sub_word(mo):
	  ''' Single line comment.'''
	  word = mo.group('word')	# Inline comment
	  if word in keywords[language]:
		  return quote + word + quote
	  else:
		  return word
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Outputs:

.Code filter example
[python]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
''' A multi-line
    comment.'''
def sub_word(mo):
	''' Single line comment.'''
	word = mo.group('word')	# Inline comment
	if word in keywords[language]:
		return quote + word + quote
	else:
		return word
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Tips and Tricks
---------------

Know Your Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing AsciiDoc documents will be a whole lot more pleasant if you
know your favorite text editor. Learn how to indent and reformat text
blocks, paragraphs, lists and sentences. <<X20,Tips for 'vim' users>>
follow.

[[X20]]
Vim Commands for Formatting AsciiDoc
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Vim text editor's  `gq` command is great for reformatting and
indenting AsciiDoc paragraphs and lists.

TIP: The Vim website (http://www.vim.org[]) has a wealth of resources,
including scripts for automated spell checking and ASCII Art drawing.

Text Wrap Paragraphs
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Use the vim `:gq` command to reformat paragraphs. Setting the
'textwidth' sets the right text wrap margin; for example:

  :set textwidth=70

To reformat a paragraph:

1. Position the cursor at the start of the paragraph.
2. Type `gq}`.

Execute `:help gq` command to read about the vim gq command.

TIP: Put `set` commands in your `~/.vimrc` file so you don't have to
enter them manually.

Format Lists
^^^^^^^^^^^^
The `:gq` command can also be used to format bulleted and numbered
lists. First you need to:

1. Set the `textwidth` right wrap margin.
2. Set the `formatoptions` n flag to enable numbered list reformatting
   (this flag also requires the `autoindent` option be set).
3. Add `fb:\*,fb:.,fb:+,fb:>` to the `comments` option to assist the
   Vim `:gq` command reformat the AsciiDoc bulleted and numbered lists
   (in the example the C style comments middle part (`mb:*`) has been
   dropped to avoid ambiguity). Run the vim `:help format-comments`
   command for more about reformatting).

For example:

  :set textwidth=70 formatoptions=tcqn autoindent
  :set comments=s1:/*,ex:*/,://,b:#,:%,fb:-,fb:*,fb:.,fb:+,fb:>

Now you can format simple lists that use dash, asterisk, period and
plus bullets along with numbered ordered lists:

1. Position the cursor at the start of the list.
2. Type `gq}`.

TIP: Assign the `gq}` command to the Q key with the `:nnoremap Q gq}`
command or put it in your `~/.vimrc` file to so it's always available.

Here's how I setup my `.vimrc` file:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
nnoremap Q gq}

autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.txt,README,TODO,CHANGELOG,NOTES
	\ setlocal autoindent expandtab tabstop=8 softtabstop=2 shiftwidth=2
	\ textwidth=70 wrap formatoptions=tcqn
       	\ comments=s1:/*,ex:*/,://,b:#,:%,:XCOMM,fb:-,fb:*,fb:+,fb:.,fb:>
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Indent Paragraphs
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Indent whole paragraphs by indenting the fist line with the desired
indent and then executing the `gq}` command.

Troubleshooting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- The asciidoc(1) `-v` verbose command-line option displays the order
  of configuration file loading, prints attribute lists and warns of
  potential configuration file problems.
- Not all valid AsciiDoc documents produce valid backend markup. Read
  the <<X5,AsciiDoc Backends>> section if AsciiDoc output is rejected
  as non-conformant by a backend processor.

Gotchas
~~~~~~~
Misinterpreted text formatting::
    If text in your document is incorrectly interpreted as formatting
    instructions you can suppress formatting by placing a backslash
    character immediately in front of the leading quote character(s).
    For example in the following line the backslash prevents text
    between the two asterisks from being output in a strong (bold)
    font:

    Add `\*.cs` files and `*.resx` files.

Overlapping text formatting::
    Overlapping text formatting will generate illegal overlapping
    markup tags which will result in downstream XML parsing errors.
    Here's an example:

    Some *strong markup 'that overlaps* emphasized markup'.

Ambiguous underlines::
    A DelimitedBlock can immediately follow paragraph without an
    intervening blank line, but be careful, a single line paragraph
    underline may be misinterpreted as a section title underline
    resulting in a "closing block delimiter expected" error.

Ambiguous ordered list items::
    Lines beginning with numbers at the end of sentences will be
    interpreted as ordered list items.  The following example
    (incorrectly) begins a new list with item number 1999:

    He was last sighted in
    1999. Since then things have moved on.
+
The 'list item out of sequence' warning makes is unlikely that this
problem will go unnoticed.

Escaping inside DSV table data::
    Delimiter separated text uses C style backslash escape sequences.
    If you want to enter a backslash (for example, to escape AsciiDoc
    text formatting or an inline macro) you need to escape it by
    entering two backslashes.

Special characters in attribute values::
    Special character substitution precedes attribute substitution so
    if attribute values contain special characters you may, depending
    on the substitution context, need to substitute the special
    characters yourself. For example:

    $ asciidoc -a 'companyname=Bill &amp; Ben' -b html mydoc.txt

Macro attribute lists::
    If named attribute list entries are used then positional attribute
    values must be quoted.  For example:

    ["Desktop screenshot",width=32]

CSS rule ambiguity::
    One liner embedded CSS rules of the form
    `selector \{property: value}` will be interpreted as a glossary
    references unless a space is inserted after the opening brace.

Combining Separate Documents
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have a number of stand-alone AsciiDoc documents that you want to
process as a single document. Simply processing them with a series of
`include` macros won't work, because instead of starting at level 1
the section levels of the combined document start at level 0 (the
document title level).

The solution is to redefine the title underlines so that document and
section titles are pushed down one level.

. Push the standard title underlines down one level by defining a new
  level 0 underline in a custom configuration file. For example
  `combined.conf`:
  
  [titles]
  underlines="__","==","--","~~","^^"

. Create a top level wrapper document. For example `combined.txt`:
+
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 Combined Document Title
 _______________________

 include::document1.txt[]

 include::document2.txt[]

 include::document3.txt[]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
  
. Process the wrapper document. For example:

  $ asciidoc -b html -f combined.conf combined.txt

Actually the `-f` is unnecessary as asciidoc(1) automatically looks
for a same-named `.conf` file.

- The combined document title uses the newly defined level 0 underline
  (underscore characters).
- Put a blank line between the `include` macro lines to ensure the
  title of the included document is not seen as part of the last
  paragraph of the previous document.
- You won't want document Headers (Author and Revision lines) in the
  included files -- conditionally exclude them if they are necessary
  for stand-alone processing.

Processing Document Sections Separately
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have divided your AsciiDoc document into separate files (one per top level
section) which are combined and processed with the following top level
document:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
 Combined Document Title
 =======================
 Joe Bloggs
 v1.0, 12-Aug-03

 include::section1.txt[]

 include::section2.txt[]

 include::section3.txt[]
---------------------------------------------------------------------

You also want to process the section files as separate documents.
This is easy because asciidoc(1) will quite happily process
`section1.txt`, `section2.txt` and `section3.txt` separately.

If you want to promote the section levels up one level, so the
document is processed just like a stand-alone document, then pop the
section underline definition up one level:

  [titles]
  underlines="--","~~","^^","++","__"

The last `"__"` underline is a dummy that won't actually be used but
is necessary to legitimize the underline definition.

This is just the reverse of the technique used for combining separate
documents explained in the previous section.

Processing Document Chunks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
asciidoc(1) can be used as a filter, so you can pipe chunks of text
through it. For example:

  $ echo 'Hello *World!*' | asciidoc -s -b html -
  <p>
  Hello <strong>World!</strong>
  </p>

The `-s` command-line option suppresses header and footer output and
is useful if the processed output is to be included in another file.

Badges in HTML Page Footers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
See the `badges.conf` file in the AsciiDoc distribution `examples\`
directory.

Pretty Printing AsciiDoc Output
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If the indentation and layout of the asciidoc(1) output is not to your
liking you can:

1. Change the indentation and layout of configuration file markup
   template sections. The `\{empty}` glossary entry is useful for
   outputting trailing blank lines in markup templates.

2. Or use Dave Raggett's excellent 'HTML Tidy' program to tidy
   asciidoc(1) output. Examples:

   $ asciidoc -b docbook -o - mydoc.txt | tidy -indent -xml >mydoc.xml
   $ asciidoc -b css-embedded -o - mydoc.txt | tidy -indent >mydoc.html

'HTML Tidy' can be downloaded from http://tidy.sourceforge.net/[]

The Mozilla and Firefox web browsers also do a good job of displaying
XML content in a collapsible outline format.

Supporting Minor DocBook DTD Variations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The distribution `docbook-sgml.conf` file illustrates how to support
minor DTD variations.

Shipping Stand-alone AsciiDoc Source
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reproducing presentation documents from some else's source has one
major problem: unless your configuration files are the same creator's
you won't get the same output.

The solution is to create a single backend specific composite
configuration file using the asciidoc(1) `-c` command-line option. You
then ship this file along with the AsciiDoc source document plus the
`asciidoc.py` script. The only end user requirement is that they have
Python installed. This example creates a composite HTML configuration
file for `mydoc.txt`:

  $ asciidoc -c -b xhtml mydoc.txt > mydoc-html.conf

Ship `mydoc.txt`, `mydoc-html.conf`, and `asciidoc.py`. With
these three files (and a Python interpreter) the recipient can
regenerate the HMTL output:

  $ ./asciidoc.py -e -b xhtml mydoc.txt

The `-e` option excludes the use of any existing implicit
configuration files, ensuring that only entries from the
`mydoc-html.conf` configuration are used.

Inserting Blank Space
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adjust your style sheets to add the correct separation between block
elements. Inserting blank paragraphs containing a single non-breaking
space character `\{nbsp}` works but is an ad hoc solution compared
to using style sheets.

Closing Open Sections
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can close off section tags up to level `N` by calling the
`\eval::[Section.setlevel(N)]` system macro. This is useful if you
want to a section composed of raw markup. The following example
includes a DocBook glossary division at the top section level (level
0):

---------------------------------------------------------------------
  ifdef::backend-docbook[]

  eval::[Section.setlevel(0)]

  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  <glossary>
    <title>Glossary</title>
    <glossdiv>
    ...
    </glossdiv>
  </glossary>
  +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  endif::backend-docbook[]
---------------------------------------------------------------------


[[X12]]
Processing DocBook Files
------------------------
For reasons outlined previously documents with an article or book type
structure will usually be processed using AsciiDoc's DocBook output.
The distributed AsciiDoc User Guide plus the example article and book
template documents have been generated in this way.

The toolchain processing steps are:

. Convert AsciiDoc (`\*.txt`) documents to DocBook XML (`*.xml`) using
  AsciiDoc.
. Convert DocBook XML documents to HTML, XSL-FO or HTML Help source
  files using DocBook XSL Stylesheets and an XML parser.
. Convert the XSL-FO file to PDF using FOP and the HTML Help source
  files to an HTML Help (`*.chm`) file using the Microsoft HTML Help
  Compiler.

Toolchain Components
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here are the commands and packages I use to generate the AsciiDoc
HTML, PDF and HTML Help documentation files:

AsciiDoc::
    Converts AsciiDoc (`\*.txt`) files to DocBook XML (`*.xml`) files.

DocBook XSL Stylesheets::
    This package contains a set of XSL stylesheets for converting
    DocBook XML documents to HTML, XSL-FO and HTML Help source (see
    the <<X13,DocBook XSL Stylesheets section>>.

xsltproc::
    `xsltproc`  is  a command line XML parser for applying XSLT
    stylesheets (in our case the DocBook XSL Stylesheets) to XML
    documents. It is part of libxslt, the XSLT C library for GNOME
    (see http://www.xmlsoft.org[]).

FOP::
    The Apache Formatting Objects Processor converts XSL-FO (`*.fo`)
    files to PDF files (see the <<X14,FOP section>>.

Microsoft Help Compiler::
    The Microsoft HTML Help Compiler (`hhc.exe`) is a command-line
    tool that converts HTML Help source files to a single HTML Help
    (`*.chm`) file. It runs on MS Windows platforms and can be
    downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com[].

AsciiDoc XSL Drivers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You will have noticed that the distributed PDF, HTML and HTML Help
documentation files (for example `./doc/asciidoc.html`) are not the
plain outputs produced using the default DocBook XSL Stylesheets
configuration.  This is because they have been processed using
customized DocBook XSL Stylesheet drivers.  

You'll find these DocBook XSL drivers in the distribution `./doc`
directory. The examples which follow are executed from the
distribution `./doc` directory:

`common.xsl`::
    Shared driver parameters.  This file is not used directly but is
    included in all the following drivers.

`chunked.xsl`::
    Generate chunked XHTML (separate HTML pages for each document
    section) in the `./doc/chunked` directory. For example:

    $ python ../asciidoc.py -b docbook asciidoc.txt
    $ xsltproc --nonet chunked.xsl asciidoc.xml

`fo.xsl`::
    Generate XSL Formatting Object (`*.fo`) files for subsequent PDF
    file generation using FOP. For example:

    $ python ../asciidoc.py -b docbook article.txt
    $ xsltproc --nonet fo.xsl article.xml > article.fo
    $ fop.sh article.fo article.pdf

`htmlhelp.xsl`::
    Generate Microsoft HTML Help source files for the MS HTML Help
    Compiler in the `./doc/htmlhelp` directory. See the article at
    http://www.codeproject.com/winhelp/docbook_howto.asp[].  This
    example is run on MS Windows from a Cygwin shell prompt:

    $ python ../asciidoc.py -b docbook asciidoc.txt
    $ xsltproc --nonet htmlhelp.xsl asciidoc.xml
    $ c:/Program\ Files/HTML\ Help\ Workshop/hhc.exe htmlhelp.hhp
    $ mv htmlhelp.chm asciidoc.chm

`manpages.xsl`::
    Generate a `roff(1)` format UNIX man page from a DocBook XML
    'refentry' document. This example generates an `asciidoc.1` man
    page file:

    $ python ../asciidoc.py -d manpage -b docbook asciidoc.1.txt
    $ xsltproc --nonet manpages.xsl asciidoc.1.xml

`xhtml.xsl`::
    Convert a DocBook XML file to a single XHTML file. For example:

    $ python ../asciidoc.py -b docbook asciidoc.txt
    $ xsltproc --nonet xhtml.xsl asciidoc.xml > asciidoc.html

If you want to see how the complete documentation set is processed
take a look at the A-A-P script `./doc/main.aap`.


[[X13]]
DocBook XSL Stylesheets
-----------------------
The 'DocBook XSL Stylesheets' package contains a set of XSL
stylesheets for converting DocBook XML documents to HTML, XSL-FO and
HTML Help source (see
http://sourceforge.net/projects/docbook/[]). It is used in
conjunction with an XML parser such as `xsltproc`.

Installing DocBook XSL Stylesheets on Linux
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These instructions were carried out on Fedora Core 1 and may differ on
other Linux distributions.

Extract the distribution and set it as the default DocBook XSL Stylesheets with a symbolic link:

  $ su
  # cd /usr/share/sgml/docbook
  # tar -xzf ~srackham/tmp/docbook-xsl-1.67.2.tar.gz
  # rm xsl-stylesheets
  # ln -s docbook-xsl-1.67.2 xsl-stylesheets
 
NOTE: The assumption is made that you have an up to date version of
`libxslt` (which includes the `xsltproc(1)` command) from
http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/[]. To check enter `xsltproc{nbsp}--version`
at the command prompt.

.Don't hardwire file locations into XSLT drivers
*********************************************************************
There's no need to have elements like this in your XSLT drivers:

  <xsl:import href="C:/bin/docbook-xsl-1.65.1/xhtml/docbook.xsl"/>

It makes them machine and release dependent. It's much better to add
rewrite statements to your machine's XML catalog. This allows you to
use generic URL stylesheet locations, for example:

  <xsl:import href=
  http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/fo/docbook.xsl"/>

Here are the relevant rewrite statements from the `/etc/xml/catalog`
file on a Fedora Linux workstation (the catalog location may differ on
other Linux distributions):

  <rewriteSystem systemIdStartString=
  "http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current"
  rewritePrefix=
  "file:///usr/share/sgml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets"/>

  <rewriteURI uriStartString=
  "http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current"
  rewritePrefix=
  "file:///usr/share/sgml/docbook/xsl-stylesheets"/>

*********************************************************************

[[X14]]
FOP
---
XSL Stylesheets can be used to generate FO (Formatting Object) files,
which in turn can be used to produce PDF files using the Apache
Formatting Object Processor program (FOP). More the FOP home page is
at http://xml.apache.org/fop/[].

Reasons to us FOP:

. You can produce PDF on both Windows and POSIX platforms.
. The PDF quality is on a par with that produced by `jw(1)`.
. PDF files are about half the size of those produced by `jw(1)` and
  friends.
. Processes images, table of contents and  images and inserts PDF
  Bookmarks and active hypertext links.
. Uses DocBook XML (no need to produce DocBook SGML).

As of version 0.20.5 installation and configuration of FOP is a manual
process. You also need a working Java Runtime to run FOP.

Installing FOP on Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
. Download latest FOP distribution from http://xml.apache.org/fop/[].
. Unzip to `C:\bin`.
. Edit the distribution `fop.bat` file and put it in the search
  `PATH`:

  set LOCAL_FOP_HOME=C:\bin\fop-0.20.5\

. Download the JIMI image processing library from
  http://java.sun.com/products/jimi/[].
. Extract the `JimiProClasses.jar` library from the JIMI distribution
  and copy to the FOP `./lib` directory.
. Edit the distribution `fop.bat` file again and add the JIMI library
  to `LOCALCLASSPATH`:

  set LOCALCLASSPATH=%LOCALCLASSPATH%;%LIBDIR%\JimiProClasses.jar
  
. You should now be able to run FOP from a DOS prompt -- execute
  it without arguments to get a list of command options:

  > fop.bat

Installing FOP on Linux
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's how I installed FOP on Fedora Core 1:

. Download latest FOP distribution from http://xml.apache.org/fop/[].
. Install the FOP distribution:

  $ su
  # cd /usr/local/lib
  # unzip ~srackham/tmp/fop-0.20.5-bin.zip
  # cp /usr/local/lib/fop-0.20.5/fop.sh /usr/local/bin
  # chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fop.sh

. Edit the FOP start script `fop.sh` adding this line to the start of
  the script:

  FOP_HOME=/usr/local/lib/fop-0.20.5

. Download the JIMI image processing library from
  http://java.sun.com/products/jimi/[].
. Extract the `JimiProClasses.jar` library from the JIMI distribution
  and copy to the FOP `lib` directory.

  # cp ~srackham/tmp/JimiProClasses.jar /usr/local/lib/fop-0.20.5/lib/
 
. You should now be able to run FOP from a DOS prompt -- execute
  it without arguments to get a list of command options:

  $ fop.sh

Installing Java on Windows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First check that Java is not already installed:

. Open a DOS 'Command Prompt' window.
. Enter this command:

  java -version

You should see something like this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
java version "1.4.2_01"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_01-b06)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_01-b06, mixed mode)
---------------------------------------------------------------------

If you don't Java is not installed and you need to:

. Download the Java Runtime (JRE) for Windows from
  http://java.sun.com[].
. Install using the instructions on the download page.

Installing Java on Linux
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Check Java is not already installed by entering the following command:

  $ java -version

You should see something like this:

  java version "1.4.2_01"
  Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_01-b06)
  Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_01-b06, mixed mode)

If you don't Java is not installed and you need to download the Sun
Java Runtime (JRE) for Linux from http://java.sun.com[].

Here's how I installed the RPM version of the JRE on Fedora Core 1:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
$ ./j2re-1_4_2_05-linux-i586-rpm.bin
$ su
# rpm -vih j2re-1_4_2_05-linux-i586.rpm
# vi /etc/profile.d/java.sh
# chmod +x /etc/profile.d/java.sh
^D
$ . /etc/profile.d/java.sh
$ java -version
java version "1.4.2_05"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build
1.4.2_05-b04)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_05-b04, mixed mode)
$
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The following two lines are entered into the `/etc/profile.d/java.sh`
file:

  export PATH=$PATH:/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_05/bin/
  export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/j2re1.4.2_05

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

MEPIS 2004.3
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Blackdown Java 2 JRE 1.4 is installed by default but you need to
set the `JAVA_HOME` environment variable:

  export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/j2se/1.4/jre

The following packages need to be installed for a
complete AsciiDoc compatible toolchain:

- xml-core
- libxslt1.1
- docbook-xsl
- libxml2
- docbook-xml
- xsltproc
- fop
- aap


Xandros 2.0
~~~~~~~~~~~
The Sun Java 2 JRE 1.4 is installed by default but you need to
set the `JAVA_HOME` environment variable:

  export JAVA_HOME=/opt/j2re1.4.2_01

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


XML and Character Sets
----------------------
The default XML character set `UTF-8` is used when AsciiDoc generates
DocBook files (but you can change it by changing the `xmldecl` entry
in the `[attributes]` section of the `docbook.conf` file or by
composing your own configuration file `[header]` section).

If you're familiar with HTML there are many predefined character
entities that you will have taken for granted -- for example the
non-breaking space character `&nbsp;`. XML has only five predefined
named character entities: `&amp;`, `&lt;`, `&gt;`, `&quot;` and
`&apos;`. Any others (for example `&nbsp;`) have to be either defined
or included.

TIP: If you get an 'undefined entity' error when processing DocBook
files you'll may find that you've used and HTML character entity
that's not been included. An easy (although inelegant) fix is to use
the character's character code instead of it's symbolic name (for
example use `&#160;` instead of `&nbsp;`).

If your system has been configured with an XML catalog you may find a
number of entity sets are already automatically included -- if you're
using Fedora Linux take a look at the global `/etc/xml/catalog` file.

PDF Fonts
~~~~~~~~~
The Adobe PDF Specification states that the following 14 fonts should
be available to every PDF reader: Helvetica (normal, bold, italic,
bold italic), Times (normal, bold, italic, bold italic), Courier
(normal, bold, italic, bold italic), Symbol and ZapfDingbats.
Non-standard fonts should be embedded in the distributed document.


Glossary
--------
Block element [[G1]]:-
    An AsciiDoc block element is a document entity composed of one or
    more whole lines which translates to a block of output lines.

Formal element:-
    An AsciiDoc block element that has a BlockTitle. Formal elements
    are normally listed in front or back matter, for example lists of
    tables, examples and figures.

Inline element:-
    AsciiDoc inline elements occur within block element textual
    content, they perform formatting and substitution tasks.

Verbatim element:-
    The word verbatim indicates that white space and line breaks in
    the source document are to be preserved in the output document.
