reStructuredText Support in Trac

Trac supports using reStructuredText (RST) as an alternative to wiki markup in any context WikiFormatting is used.

From the reStucturedText webpage:

"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. "

If you want a file from your Subversion repository be displayed as reStructuredText in Trac's source browser, set text/x-rst as value for the Subversion property svn:mime-type. See ​this example.

Requirements

Note that to activate RST support in Trac, the python docutils package must be installed. If not already available on your operating system, you can download it at the ​RST Website.

Install docutils using easy_install docutils. Do not use the package manager of your OS (e.g. apt-get install python-docutils), because Trac will not find docutils then.

More information on RST

• reStructuredText Website -- ​http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
• RST Quick Reference -- ​http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/rst/quickref.html

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Using RST in Trac

To specify that a block of text should be parsed using RST, use the rst processor.

TracLinks in reStructuredText

• Trac provides a custom RST directive trac:: to allow TracLinks from within RST text.

Example:

{{{
#!rst
This is a reference to |a ticket|

.. |a ticket| trac:: #42
}}}

• Trac allows an even easier way of creating TracLinks in RST, using the custom :trac: role.

Example:

{{{
#!rst
This is a reference to ticket `#12`:trac:

To learn how to use Trac, see `TracGuide`:trac:
}}}

For a complete example of all uses of the :trac: role, please see WikiRestructuredTextLinks.

Syntax highlighting in reStructuredText

There is a directive for doing TracSyntaxColoring in RST as well. The directive is called code-block

Example

{{{
#!rst

.. code-block:: python

 class Test:

    def TestFunction(self):
        pass

}}}

Will result in the below.

class Test:

   def TestFunction(self):
       pass

Wiki Macros in reStructuredText

For doing Wiki Macros in RST you use the same directive as for syntax highlighting i.e code-block.

Wiki Macro Example

{{{
#!rst

.. code-block:: RecentChanges

   Trac,3

}}}

Will result in the below:

Sep 10, 2020

• TracWorkflow (diff)
• TracModWSGI (diff)
• TracFastCgi (diff)

Or a more concise Wiki Macro like syntax is also available:

{{{
#!rst

:code-block:`RecentChanges:Trac,3`
}}}

Bigger RST Example

The example below should be mostly self-explanatory:

{{{
#!rst
FooBar Header
=============
reStructuredText is **nice**. It has its own webpage_.

A table:

=====  =====  ======
   Inputs     Output
------------  ------
  A      B    A or B
=====  =====  ======
False  False  False
True   False  True
False  True   True
True   True   True
=====  =====  ======

RST TracLinks
-------------

See also ticket `#42`:trac:.

.. _webpage: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
}}}

Results in:

FooBar Header

reStructuredText is nice. It has its own webpage.

A table:

Inputs		Output
A	B	A or B
False	False	False
True	False	True
False	True	True
True	True	True

RST TracLinks

See also ticket #42.

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See also: WikiRestructuredTextLinks, WikiProcessors, WikiFormatting