ReStructuredText

ReStructuredText is a plain TXT format that is often used by Python programmers for their documentation.

Overview

reStructuredText is an easy-to-read, what-you-see-is-what-you-get plaintext markup syntax and parser system. It is useful for in-line program documentation (such as Python docstrings), for quickly creating simple web pages, and for standalone documents. reStructuredText is designed for extensibility for specific application domains. The reStructuredText parser is a component of Docutils. reStructuredText is a revision and reinterpretation of the StructuredText and Setext lightweight markup systems. It can be read by Pandoc which can convert it into ePub and other formats.

Inline formats

Plain text	Typical result	Notes
*emphasis*	emphasis	Normally rendered as italics.
**strong emphasis**	strong emphasis	Normally rendered as boldface.
`interpreted text`	(see note at right)	The rendering and meaning of interpreted text is domain- or application-dependent. It can be used for things like index entries or explicit descriptive markup (like program identifiers).
``inline literal``	inline literal	Normally rendered as monospaced text. Spaces should be preserved, but line breaks will not be.
`phrase reference`_	phrase reference	A hyperlink reference with spaces or punctuation needs to be quoted with backquotes. See Hyperlink Targets.
anonymous__	anonymous	With two underscores instead of one, both simple and phrase references may be anonymous (the reference text is not repeated at the target). See Hyperlink Targets.
_`inline internal target`	inline internal target	A crossreference target within text. See Hyperlink Targets.
|substitution reference|	(see note at right)	The result is substituted in from the substitution definition. It could be text, an image, a hyperlink, or a combination of these and others.
footnote reference [1]_	footnote reference 1	See Footnotes.
citation reference [CIT2002]_	citation reference [CIT2002]	See Citations.
http://docutils.sf.net/	http://docutils.sf.net/	A standalone hyperlink.

Structure

Plain text	Typical result
===== Title ===== Subtitle -------- Titles are underlined (or over- and underlined) with a printing non-alphanumeric 7-bit ASCII character. Recommended choices are "``= - ` : ' " ~ ^ _ * + # < >``". The underline/overline must be at least as long as the title text. A lone top-level (sub)section is lifted up to be the document's (sub)title.	Title Subtitle Titles are underlined (or over- and underlined) with a printing non-alphanumeric 7-bit ASCII character. Recommended choices are "= - ` : ' " ~ ^ _ * + # < >". The underline/overline must be at least as long as the title text. A lone top-level (sub)section is lifted up to be the document's (sub)title.

For more information

• http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
• http://sphinx-doc.org/