While Python-Markdown is primarily a python library, a command line script is included as well. While there are many other command line implementations of Markdown, you may not have them installed, or you may prefer to use Python-Markdown’s various extensions.
Generally, you will want to have the Markdown library fully installed on your system to run the command line script. See the Installation instructions for details.
Python-Markdown’s command line script takes advantage of Python’s -m flag.
Therefore, assuming the python executable is on your system path, use the
following format:
$ python -m markdown [options] [args]
That will run the module as a script with the options and args provided.
Note
Unfortunately, Python 2.6 does not fully support the -m flag. Therefore, you
may need to specify the module in which the command line script exists
(markdown.__main__):
$ python -m markdown.__main__ [options] [args]
At its most basic usage, one would simply pass in a file name as the only argument:
$ python -m markdown input_file.txt
Piping input and output (on STDIN and STDOUT) is fully supported as well. For example:
$ echo "Some **Markdown** text." | python -m markdown > output.html
Use the --help option for a list all available options and args:
$ python -m markdown --help
If you don’t want to call the python executable directly (using the -m flag),
follow the instructions below to use a wrapper script:
Upon installation, the markdown_py script will have been copied to
your Python “Scripts” directory. Different systems require different methods to
ensure that any files in the Python “Scripts” directory are on your system
path.
Windows:
Assuming a default install of Python on Windows, your “Scripts” directory
is most likely something like C:\\Python26\Scripts. Verify the location
of your “Scripts” directory and add it to you system path.
Calling markdown_py from the command line will call the wrapper batch
file markdown_py.bat in the “Scripts” directory created during install.
*nix (Linux, OSX, BSD, Unix, etc.):
As each *nix distribution is different and we can’t possibly document all of them here, we’ll provide a few helpful pointers:
Some systems will automatically install the script on your path. Try it
and see if it works. Just run markdown_py from the command line.
Other systems may maintain a separate “Scripts” (“bin”) directory which you need to add to your path. Find it (check with your distribution) and either add it to your path or make a symbolic link to it from your path.
If you are sure markdown_py is on your path, but it still isn’t being
found, check the permissions of the file and make sure it is executable.
As an alternative, you could just cd into the directory which contains
the source distribution, and run it from there. However, remember that your
markdown text files will not likely be in that directory, so it is much
more convenient to have markdown_py on your path.
Note
Python-Markdown uses “markdown_py” as a script name because
the Perl implementation has already taken the more obvious name “markdown”.
Additionally, the default Python configuration on some systems would cause a
script named “markdown.py” to fail by importing itself rather than the markdown
library. Therefore, the script has been named “markdown_py” as a compromise. If
you prefer a different name for the script on your system, it is suggested that
you create a symbolic link to markdown_py with your preferred name.
To use markdown_py from the command line, run it as
$ markdown_py input_file.txt
or
$ markdown_py input_file.txt > output_file.html
For a complete list of options, run
$ markdown_py --help
For an extension to be run from the command line it must be provided in a module on your python path (see the Extension API for details). It can then be invoked by the name of that module:
$ markdown_py -x footnotes text_with_footnotes.txt > output.html
If the extension supports config options, you can pass them in as well:
$ markdown_py -x "footnotes(PLACE_MARKER=~~~~~~~~)" input.txt