mdBook is a command-line application for creating online books, tutorials and technical manuals from Markdown documents. Written in Rust, it is particularly popular for programming documentation and other material organised into chapters.
An mdBook project consists of Markdown files and a summary defining the book’s structure. The application converts these files into a navigable publication, complete with a contents sidebar, page navigation and facilities for finding information across the book.
The software is designed to keep the authoring process straightforward. Writers can concentrate on individual chapters rather than manually building navigation and formatting. Although its primary output is a website, mdBook also has an extensible processing architecture that accommodates alternative output formats and additional document transformations.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Creates structured books from individual Markdown chapters.
- Uses a summary file to define chapters, subchapters and navigation order.
- Includes full-text search across the generated book.
- Provides automatic previous and next chapter navigation.
- Syntax highlighting supports code examples in numerous programming languages.
- Built-in themes provide alternative visual presentations, including light and dark styles.
- MathJax support enables mathematical equations within chapters.
- Rust code examples can be tested automatically to detect broken examples.
- Preprocessor extensions can modify or augment the Markdown before rendering.
- Custom renderers provide alternative output formats and presentation methods.
- Handlebars templates allow extensive customisation of the generated HTML.
- Cross-platform support – runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: github.com/rust-lang/mdBook
Support:
Developer: mdBook contributors
License: Mozilla Public License v2.0
mdBook is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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