How do you get Python documentation in Texinfo Info format?
Question:
Since Python 2.6, it seems the documentation is in the new reStructuredText format, and it doesn’t seem very easy to build a Texinfo Info file out of the box anymore.
I’m an Emacs addict and prefer my documentation installed in Info.
Does anyone have Python 2.6 or later docs in Texinfo format? How did you convert them? Or, is there a maintained build somewhere out there?
I know I can use w3m or haddoc to view the html docs – I really want them in Info.
I’ve played with Pandoc but after a few small experiments it doesn’t seem to deal well with links between documents, and my larger experiment – running it across all docs cat’ed together to see what happens – is still chugging along two days since I started it!
Two good answers
Highlighting two answers below, because SO won’t allow me to accept both answers:
- @wilfred-hughes: Installing from MELPA is the quickest way to get pre-build info into Emacs
- @alioth: Building it yourself looks like it’s a lot easier than when I asked this question in 2009
Answers:
Python docs are now generated using Sphynx framework. This framework does not have texinfo output format. Currently it has:
- HTML
- latex
- plain text
Maybe you can get what you want using the Latex output. With the text output you will lost the cross ref.
Personnaly I prefer using pydoc when I want textual output. With Vim I have a shorcut to call pydoc and open a window with the doc for the entity under my cursor…
Another “workaround” is to execute pydoc as suggested by Nikokrock directly in Emacs:
(defun pydoc (&optional arg)
(interactive)
(when (not (stringp arg))
(setq arg (thing-at-point 'word)))
(setq cmd (concat "pydoc " arg))
(ad-activate-regexp "auto-compile-yes-or-no-p-always-yes")
(shell-command cmd)
(setq pydoc-buf (get-buffer "*Shell Command Output*"))
(switch-to-buffer-other-window pydoc-buf)
(python-mode)
(ad-deactivate-regexp "auto-compile-yes-or-no-p-always-yes")
)
Michael Ernst used to maintain Info formats of Python docs:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/mernst/software/#python-info
You can try using his makefile and html2texi script to generate an updated version. Both are linked at the above URL. I’m not sure how well it works now (the last version was around 2001), but his script is well commented (grep for “python”).
For those following this question in the hope of an answer, I found another rst2texinfo implementation which you might like to try:
Jon Waltman http://bitbucket.org/jonwaltman/sphinx-info has forked sphinx and written a texinfo builder, it can build the python documentation (I’ve yet done it). It seems that it will be merged soon into sphinx.
Here’s the quick links for the downloads (temporary):
Steps to generate python doc in texinfo format:
Download the python source code
Download and install the sphinx-info package (in a virtualenv)
Enter in the Python/Doc directory from the python sources
Edit the Makefile, to the build target replace $(PYTHON) tools/sphinx-build.py with sphinx-build, then add this target to the makefile, pay attention, the space before echo is a TAB:
texinfo: BUILDER = texinfo
texinfo: build
@echo
@echo "Build finished. The Texinfo files are in _build/texinfo."
@echo "Run `make' in that directory to run these through makeinfo"
"(use `make info' here to do that automatically)."
Edit the Python/Doc/conf.py adding:
texinfo_documents = [
('contents', 'python', 'Python Documentation', 'Georg Brandl',
'Python', 'The Python Programming Language', 'Documentation tools',
1),
]
Then run make texinfo and it should produce the texifile in the build/texinfo directory.
To generate the info file run makeinfo python.texi
I’ve packaged up the Python docs as a texinfo file.
If you’re using Emacs with MELPA, you can simply install this with M-x package-install python-info.
With no doubt it would be cool and challenging to generate the Python documentation on your particular Python version by yourself. Just follow EmacsWiki, or feel free to compile it locally (at Debian Jessy for Python3.4.2):
sudo apt-get install python3-sphinx
cd ~/Desktop
wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.4.2/Python-3.4.2rc1.tar.xz
tar -xf Python-3.4.2rc1.tar.xz
cd Python-3.4.2rc1/Doc/
sphinx-build -b texinfo -d build/doctrees . build/texinfo
# extra time to build
cd build/texinfo/
makeinfo python.texi
# extra time for convertation
I got this tree:
.
├── logging_flow.png
├── Makefile
├── pathlib-inheritance.png
├── python.info
├── python.info-1
├── python.info-10
├── python.info-11
├── python.info-12
├── python.info-13
├── python.info-14
├── python.info-15
├── python.info-16
├── python.info-17
├── python.info-18
├── python.info-19
├── python.info-2
├── python.info-20
├── python.info-21
├── python.info-22
├── python.info-23
├── python.info-24
├── python.info-25
├── python.info-26
├── python.info-27
├── python.info-28
├── python.info-29
├── python.info-3
├── python.info-30
├── python.info-31
├── python.info-32
├── python.info-33
├── python.info-34
├── python.info-4
├── python.info-5
├── python.info-6
├── python.info-7
├── python.info-8
├── python.info-9
├── python.texi
├── python-video-icon.png
├── tulip_coro.png
└── turtle-star.png
And now it is possible to review python documentation natively in Emacs by
C-u C-h i python-info RET
python-info is a filename (fourth in the tree above), and even to bookmark some arbitrary nodes for habitual and regular reviewing convenience.
The Ubuntu distribution provides packages pythonX.Y-doc (which include the documentation in Info format) at least since 18.04 (bionic); in 19.04 X.Y stands for 2.7, 3.7 and 3.8. The package does not have many dependencies, I assume it is possible to install it in other distributions too.
Believe it or not, the Python project actually provides us a way to do this through various Makefiles. The files utilize the Python Sphinx project to generate a texi file which makeinfo can then convert to info, the format Emacs uses for documentation.
In addition to Python3000, these instructions require GNU Make and Texinfo. These are packaged in most Linux distributions. Different distros may use different naming conventions. Refer to your distro’s documentation for the corresponding package names. For Debian based distros:
# install make to utilize the Makefiles provided by the Python project
~/$ sudo apt-get install make
# install texinfo for the `makeinfo` command
~/$ sudo apt-get install texinfo
Package names are usually similar for non-Debian systems. For Windows users, I recommend WSL or creating a virtual machine.
1. Download the documentation
Navigate to https://www.python.org/ftp/python/ and download the tarball for your Python version. It will look like:
https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.9/Python-3.7.9.tar.xz
You can use wget to download the tarball and tar to unpack it. The options x and f are for "extract file":
# download the tarball
~/$ wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.9/Python-3.7.9.tar.xz
# extract the tarball
~/$ tar xf Python-3.7.9.tar.xz
2. Run make venv in Python-X.Y.Z/Doc
Sphinx requires more dependencies than are bundled with the basic pip install. Fortunately, the Python project provides a Makefile to create the necessary environment. See the Makefile for precise details.
# Navigate to the Doc/ directory
~/$ cd Python-3.7.9/Doc
# "create a venv with necessary tools"
~/Python-3.7.9/Doc$ make venv
# activate the venv created by make
~/Python-3.7.9/Doc$ source venv/bin/activate
3. Run sphinx-build
Now that the correct environment is set up, we can run Sphinx. This call creates a cache used during generation with the -d option. The documentation files found in the current directory are converted by the texinfo "builder" and output to build/texinfo:
# -b: Use the textinfo builder
# -d: Create "doctree pickles" cache in doctrees/
# Use the current directory as source
# Output to build/texinfo
(venv) ~/Python-3.7.9/Doc$ sphinx-build -b texinfo -d build/doctrees . build/texinfo
4. Use makeinfo to generate the info file
Again, the Python maintainers have given us what we need (even if they haven’t documented it well). The previous command created a texi file along with another Makefile. The Makefile calls makeinfo.
# Navigate to the output directory
(venv) ~/Python-3.7.9/Doc$ cd build/texinfo
# Run the generated Makefile
(venv) ~/Python-3.7.9/Doc/build/texinfo$ make
# Hark, unto us an info file is born
(venv) ~/Python-3.7.9/Doc/build/texinfo$ ls
Makefile python-figures python.info python.texi
Like Indiana Jones, you behold the Holy Grail. Many have perished in this journey; you have prevailed. Take a moment to celebrate.
Note: The makeinfo conversion yields errors for me. No matter, I say. The desired info is obtained and I greedily drink from it.
5. Load python.info into Emacs…
Use C-u C-h i to directly open python.info.
To install the info file within the Emacs Help Directory node, first
check C-h v Info-default-directory-list for where info files are stored. Put python.info file there. There may be a file called dir in that directory. The dir file is generated by texinfo and contains the node listing. If no dir file exists, don’t worry, that’s what we’re creating. Note that it’s not recommended to edit dir files manually1.
Run update-info-dir in whichever directory you put python.info. This will update (or create) dir with python.info.
For complete details about the texinfo system, see https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/html_node/Installing-an-Info-File.html.
1Aside from human error, like mistyping a reference, issues may arise due to "malformed" dir files.
For Python 3.8.0 and later, pre-built Info files are available at https://www.python.org/ftp/python/doc and/or https://docs.python.org/3/archives/.
Since Python 2.6, it seems the documentation is in the new reStructuredText format, and it doesn’t seem very easy to build a Texinfo Info file out of the box anymore.
I’m an Emacs addict and prefer my documentation installed in Info.
Does anyone have Python 2.6 or later docs in Texinfo format? How did you convert them? Or, is there a maintained build somewhere out there?
I know I can use w3m or haddoc to view the html docs – I really want them in Info.
I’ve played with Pandoc but after a few small experiments it doesn’t seem to deal well with links between documents, and my larger experiment – running it across all docs cat’ed together to see what happens – is still chugging along two days since I started it!
Two good answers
Highlighting two answers below, because SO won’t allow me to accept both answers:
- @wilfred-hughes: Installing from MELPA is the quickest way to get pre-build info into Emacs
- @alioth: Building it yourself looks like it’s a lot easier than when I asked this question in 2009
Python docs are now generated using Sphynx framework. This framework does not have texinfo output format. Currently it has:
- HTML
- latex
- plain text
Maybe you can get what you want using the Latex output. With the text output you will lost the cross ref.
Personnaly I prefer using pydoc when I want textual output. With Vim I have a shorcut to call pydoc and open a window with the doc for the entity under my cursor…
Another “workaround” is to execute pydoc as suggested by Nikokrock directly in Emacs:
(defun pydoc (&optional arg)
(interactive)
(when (not (stringp arg))
(setq arg (thing-at-point 'word)))
(setq cmd (concat "pydoc " arg))
(ad-activate-regexp "auto-compile-yes-or-no-p-always-yes")
(shell-command cmd)
(setq pydoc-buf (get-buffer "*Shell Command Output*"))
(switch-to-buffer-other-window pydoc-buf)
(python-mode)
(ad-deactivate-regexp "auto-compile-yes-or-no-p-always-yes")
)
Michael Ernst used to maintain Info formats of Python docs:
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/mernst/software/#python-info
You can try using his makefile and html2texi script to generate an updated version. Both are linked at the above URL. I’m not sure how well it works now (the last version was around 2001), but his script is well commented (grep for “python”).
For those following this question in the hope of an answer, I found another rst2texinfo implementation which you might like to try:
Jon Waltman http://bitbucket.org/jonwaltman/sphinx-info has forked sphinx and written a texinfo builder, it can build the python documentation (I’ve yet done it). It seems that it will be merged soon into sphinx.
Here’s the quick links for the downloads (temporary):
Steps to generate python doc in texinfo format:
Download the python source code
Download and install the sphinx-info package (in a virtualenv)
Enter in the Python/Doc directory from the python sources
Edit the Makefile, to the build target replace $(PYTHON) tools/sphinx-build.py with sphinx-build, then add this target to the makefile, pay attention, the space before echo is a TAB:
texinfo: BUILDER = texinfo
texinfo: build
@echo
@echo "Build finished. The Texinfo files are in _build/texinfo."
@echo "Run `make' in that directory to run these through makeinfo"
"(use `make info' here to do that automatically)."
Edit the Python/Doc/conf.py adding:
texinfo_documents = [
('contents', 'python', 'Python Documentation', 'Georg Brandl',
'Python', 'The Python Programming Language', 'Documentation tools',
1),
]
Then run make texinfo and it should produce the texifile in the build/texinfo directory.
To generate the info file run makeinfo python.texi
I’ve packaged up the Python docs as a texinfo file.
If you’re using Emacs with MELPA, you can simply install this with M-x package-install python-info.
With no doubt it would be cool and challenging to generate the Python documentation on your particular Python version by yourself. Just follow EmacsWiki, or feel free to compile it locally (at Debian Jessy for Python3.4.2):
sudo apt-get install python3-sphinx
cd ~/Desktop
wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.4.2/Python-3.4.2rc1.tar.xz
tar -xf Python-3.4.2rc1.tar.xz
cd Python-3.4.2rc1/Doc/
sphinx-build -b texinfo -d build/doctrees . build/texinfo
# extra time to build
cd build/texinfo/
makeinfo python.texi
# extra time for convertation
I got this tree:
.
├── logging_flow.png
├── Makefile
├── pathlib-inheritance.png
├── python.info
├── python.info-1
├── python.info-10
├── python.info-11
├── python.info-12
├── python.info-13
├── python.info-14
├── python.info-15
├── python.info-16
├── python.info-17
├── python.info-18
├── python.info-19
├── python.info-2
├── python.info-20
├── python.info-21
├── python.info-22
├── python.info-23
├── python.info-24
├── python.info-25
├── python.info-26
├── python.info-27
├── python.info-28
├── python.info-29
├── python.info-3
├── python.info-30
├── python.info-31
├── python.info-32
├── python.info-33
├── python.info-34
├── python.info-4
├── python.info-5
├── python.info-6
├── python.info-7
├── python.info-8
├── python.info-9
├── python.texi
├── python-video-icon.png
├── tulip_coro.png
└── turtle-star.png
And now it is possible to review python documentation natively in Emacs by
C-u C-h i python-info RET
python-info is a filename (fourth in the tree above), and even to bookmark some arbitrary nodes for habitual and regular reviewing convenience.
The Ubuntu distribution provides packages pythonX.Y-doc (which include the documentation in Info format) at least since 18.04 (bionic); in 19.04 X.Y stands for 2.7, 3.7 and 3.8. The package does not have many dependencies, I assume it is possible to install it in other distributions too.
Believe it or not, the Python project actually provides us a way to do this through various Makefiles. The files utilize the Python Sphinx project to generate a texi file which makeinfo can then convert to info, the format Emacs uses for documentation.
In addition to Python3000, these instructions require GNU Make and Texinfo. These are packaged in most Linux distributions. Different distros may use different naming conventions. Refer to your distro’s documentation for the corresponding package names. For Debian based distros:
# install make to utilize the Makefiles provided by the Python project
~/$ sudo apt-get install make
# install texinfo for the `makeinfo` command
~/$ sudo apt-get install texinfo
Package names are usually similar for non-Debian systems. For Windows users, I recommend WSL or creating a virtual machine.
1. Download the documentation
Navigate to https://www.python.org/ftp/python/ and download the tarball for your Python version. It will look like:
https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.9/Python-3.7.9.tar.xz
You can use wget to download the tarball and tar to unpack it. The options x and f are for "extract file":
# download the tarball
~/$ wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.9/Python-3.7.9.tar.xz
# extract the tarball
~/$ tar xf Python-3.7.9.tar.xz
2. Run make venv in Python-X.Y.Z/Doc
Sphinx requires more dependencies than are bundled with the basic pip install. Fortunately, the Python project provides a Makefile to create the necessary environment. See the Makefile for precise details.
# Navigate to the Doc/ directory
~/$ cd Python-3.7.9/Doc
# "create a venv with necessary tools"
~/Python-3.7.9/Doc$ make venv
# activate the venv created by make
~/Python-3.7.9/Doc$ source venv/bin/activate
3. Run sphinx-build
Now that the correct environment is set up, we can run Sphinx. This call creates a cache used during generation with the -d option. The documentation files found in the current directory are converted by the texinfo "builder" and output to build/texinfo:
# -b: Use the textinfo builder
# -d: Create "doctree pickles" cache in doctrees/
# Use the current directory as source
# Output to build/texinfo
(venv) ~/Python-3.7.9/Doc$ sphinx-build -b texinfo -d build/doctrees . build/texinfo
4. Use makeinfo to generate the info file
Again, the Python maintainers have given us what we need (even if they haven’t documented it well). The previous command created a texi file along with another Makefile. The Makefile calls makeinfo.
# Navigate to the output directory
(venv) ~/Python-3.7.9/Doc$ cd build/texinfo
# Run the generated Makefile
(venv) ~/Python-3.7.9/Doc/build/texinfo$ make
# Hark, unto us an info file is born
(venv) ~/Python-3.7.9/Doc/build/texinfo$ ls
Makefile python-figures python.info python.texi
Like Indiana Jones, you behold the Holy Grail. Many have perished in this journey; you have prevailed. Take a moment to celebrate.
Note: The makeinfo conversion yields errors for me. No matter, I say. The desired info is obtained and I greedily drink from it.
5. Load python.info into Emacs…
Use C-u C-h i to directly open python.info.
To install the info file within the Emacs Help Directory node, first
check C-h v Info-default-directory-list for where info files are stored. Put python.info file there. There may be a file called dir in that directory. The dir file is generated by texinfo and contains the node listing. If no dir file exists, don’t worry, that’s what we’re creating. Note that it’s not recommended to edit dir files manually1.
Run update-info-dir in whichever directory you put python.info. This will update (or create) dir with python.info.
For complete details about the texinfo system, see https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/html_node/Installing-an-Info-File.html.
1Aside from human error, like mistyping a reference, issues may arise due to "malformed" dir files.
For Python 3.8.0 and later, pre-built Info files are available at https://www.python.org/ftp/python/doc and/or https://docs.python.org/3/archives/.