pydocmk2 uses MkDocs to build Python API documentation. Forked from pydoc-markdown 2.x, pydocmk2 is focused on Python 2.7 support for legacy reasons, and uses a modified version of the original. It also includes a modified version of the Python 2.7 pydoc tool.

python2 -m pip install git+https://github.com/twardoch/pydocmk2

pydocmk2 can generate plain Markdown files from Python modules using the pydocmk2 simple command. Specify one or more module names on the command-line. Supports the + syntax to include members of the module (or ++ to include members of the members, etc.)

pydocmk2 simple mypackage+ mypackage.mymodule+ > docs.md

Alternatively, pydocmk2 wraps the MkDocs command-line interface and generates the markdown pages beforehand. Simply use pydocmk2 build to build the documentation, or pydocmk2 serve to serve the documentation on a local HTTP server. The pydocmk2 gh-deploy from MkDocs is also supported.

A configuration file pydocmk2.yml is required to use pydocmk2 in this mode. Below is an example configuration. To get started, create docs/ directory and a file pydocmk2.yml inside of it. Copy the configuration below and adjust it to your needs, then run pydocmk2 build from the docs/ directory.

site_name: "My Documentation"

# This tells pydocmk2 which pages to generate from which Python modules,
# functions and classes. At the first level is the page name, below that
# is a tree of Python member names (modules, classes, etc.) that should be
# documented. Higher indentation leads to smaller header size.
generate:
- baz/cool-stuff.md:
  - foobar.baz:
    - foobar.baz.CoolClass+     # (+ to include members)
    - foobar.baz.some_function
- baz/more-stuff.md:
  - foobar.more++               # (++ to include members, and their members)

# MkDocs pages configuration. The `<<` operator is sugar added by pydocmk2
# that allows you to use an external Markdown file (eg. your project's README)
# in the documentation. The path must be relative to current working directory.
# This configuration is not mandatory if you have your own mkdocs.yml config file.
pages:
- Home: index.md << ../README.md
- foobar.baz:
  - Cool Stuff: baz/cool-stuff.md

# These options all show off their default values. You don't have to add
# them to your configuration if you're fine with the default.
docs_dir: sources
gens_dir: _build/pydocmk     # This will end up as the MkDocs 'docs_dir'
site_dir: _build/site
theme:    readthedocs
loader:   pydocmk2.loader.PythonLoader
preprocessor: pydocmk2.preprocessors.pydocproc.Preprocessor

# Whether to output headers as markdown or HTML.  Used to workaround
# https://github.com/NiklasRosenstein/pydoc-markdown/issues/11.  The default is
# to generate HTML with unique and meaningful id tags, which can't be done with
# markdown.
#
# Note: if using the simple generator mode, this will default to 'markdown'
# instead of 'html'.
headers: html

# Additional search path for your Python module. If you use pydocmk2 from a
# subdirectory of your project (eg. docs/), you may want to add the parent
# directory here.
additional_search_paths:
- ..

Symbols in the same namespace may be referenced by using a hash-symbol (#) directly followed by the symbols' name, including relative references. Note that using parentheses for function names is encouraged and will be ignored and automatically added when converting docstrings. Examples: #ClassName.member or #mod.function().

For absolute references for modules or members in names that are not available in the current global namespace, #::mod.member must be used (note the two preceeding two double-colons).

For long reference names where only some part of the name should be displayed, the syntax #X~some.reference.name can be used, where X is the number of elements to keep. If X is omitted, it will be assumed 1. Example: #~some.reference.name results in only name being displayed.

In order to append additional characters that are not included in the actual reference name, another hash-symbol can be used, like #Signal#s.

Sections can be generated with the Markdown # <Title> syntax. It is important to add a whitespace after the hash-symbol (#), as otherwise it would represent a cross-reference. Some special sections alter the rendered result of their content, including

• Arguments (1)
• Parameters (1)
• Attributes (1)
• Members (1)
• Raises (2)
• Returns (2)

(1): Lines beginning with <ident> [(<type>[, ...])]: are treated as argument/parameter or attribute/member declarations. Types listed inside the parenthesis (optional) are cross-linked, if possible. For attribute/member declarations, the identifier is typed in a monospace font.

(2): Lines beginning with <type>[, ...]: are treated as raise/return type declarations and the type names are cross-linked, if possible.

Lines following a name's description are considered part of the most recent documentation unless separated by another declaration or an empty line. <type> placeholders can also be tuples in the form (<type>[, ...]).

GitHub-style Markdown code-blocks with language annotations can be used.

```python
>>> for i in range(100):
...
```

• a Markdown files found in the folder specified as pydocmk_pre_dir with the name that matches the Python object name (plus .md extension) will be included at the beginning of the object's section
• a Markdown files found in the folder specified as pydocmk_post_dir with the name that matches the Python object name (plus .md extension) will be included at the end of the object's section

• fork from https://github.com/NiklasRosenstein/pydoc-markdown/tree/2.x to https://github.com/twardoch/pydocmk2 by @twardoch
• added pydocmk preprocessor based on original pydoc
• changes to allow documenting modules that are C++ bindings

• Support arg and argument keywords in reStructuredText processor (contributed by @pastelmind in #104)

• Fix function signature for classmethods and staticmethods

• Reimplement get_function_signature() for better compatibility with default values and annotations
• Prettifying signature with yapf no longer raises a SyntaxError as all default values and annotations are replaced with placeholders
• String constants no longer get the str built-in docstring

• Use yaml.safe_load() instead of yaml.load() to silence warning about unsafe operation (#87)
• Properly loaded docstring for classmethod/staticmethod.
• getting descriptor's instance instead calling its get method.
• 'pages' configuration is deprecated in MKDocs > 1.0.0. MKDoc dependency bumped to >=1.0.0.
• Pages configuration not required when mkdocs.yml present.
• Add newline before titles for plaintext visibility
• Arguments/Returns section is considered ended if an empty line is found
• Parse references and replace them with markdown links
• Pretty print function signature
• Add smart and google preprocessors

• Now copies all files from the docs_dir (to include images etc.) (see #56)
• Fix error with delayed imports changing dictionary size during iteration (see #57)
• Add headers option which can be of value 'html' or 'markdown' (see #55)
• Default headers option to 'markdown' in simple mode (see #59)

• Add -c key=value argument for generate and simple command
• Add filter=["docstring"] option (#43)
• Fix regex for detecting cross-references (#44)
• Handle classes that don't define __init__() (PR#51)
• Add support for reStructuredText Markup (eg. :class:`MyClass` ) (PR#46, #1)
• Handle @property functions (PR#50)

• Fix #41, #36, #31
• Merged #39

• Fix #25 -- Text is incorrectly rendered as code
• Fix #26 -- Broken links for URLs with fragment identifiers
• No longer transforms titles in a docstring that are indented (eg. to avoid an indented code block with a # comment to be corrupted)

• Support additional_search_path key in configuration
• Render headers as HTML <hX> tags rather than Markdown tags, so we assign a proper ID to them
• Fix #21 -- AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'signature'
• Now requires the six module
• FIx #22 -- No blank space after header does not render codeblocks

• Complete overhaul of pydoc-markdown employing MkDocs and the Markdown module.

Copyright © 2017-2018 Niklas Rosenstein