Sphinx
A documentation generator originally built for Python.
Sphinx reads reStructuredText (and, via the MyST extension, Markdown) and produces HTML, PDF, EPUB, and man-page documentation with cross-references, indices, and a powerful auto-API generator that extracts docstrings from Python, C, C++, and other languages. The Read the Docs hosting service is built around Sphinx and serves the official documentation for tens of thousands of projects.
The Python language and many large Python libraries (scikit-learn, NumPy, Django, Flask, Pillow) use Sphinx for their official documentation. The default theme is unobtrusive and prints well, while the more contemporary Furo and Read the Docs themes give a more modern look.
Georg Brandl started Sphinx in 2008 to replace the older documentation generator the Python project had been using. The project is BSD-2-Clause licensed. Sphinx remains the dominant choice for Python project documentation, with MkDocs taking share among newer projects that prefer Markdown and a simpler configuration.
Install
pip install sphinx Or: Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install python3-sphinx Fedora/RHEL: sudo dnf install python3-sphinx Arch: sudo pacman -S python-sphinx
Authors
- Georg Brandl (creator)
- Sphinx team