GitBook

GitBook is a command line tool (and Node.js library) for building beautiful books using GitHub/Git and Markdown (or AsciiDoc). Here is an example: Learn Javascript.

You can publish and host books easily online using gitbook.com. A desktop editor is also available.

Check out the GitBook Community Slack Channel, Stay updated by following @GitBookIO on Twitter or GitBook on Facebook.

Complete documentation is available at help.gitbook.com.

How to use it:

GitBook can be installed from NPM using:

$ npm install gitbook-cli -g

Create the directories and files for a book from its SUMMARY.md file (if existing) using

$ gitbook init

You can serve a repository as a book using:

$ gitbook serve

Or simply build the static website using:

$ gitbook build

Features

• Output as a website or ebook (pdf, epub, mobi)
• Multi-Languages
• Glossary
• Cover
• AsciiDoc Support
• Variables and Templating
• Content References
• Plugins
• Interractive reader website:
  • Search
  • Font Settings (Serif, Sans Serif)
  • Themes: white, sepia, night

Output Formats

GitBook can generate your book in the following formats:

• Static Website: This is the default format. It generates a complete interactive static website that can be, for example, hosted on GitHub Pages.
• eBook: You need to have ebook-convert installed. You can specify the eBook filename as the second argument, otherwise book will be used.
  • Generate a PDF using: gitbook pdf ./myrepo ./mybook.pdf
  • Generate a ePub using: gitbook epub ./myrepo ./mybook.epub
  • Generate a MOBI using: gitbook mobi ./myrepo ./mybook.mobi
• JSON: This format is used for debugging or extracting metadata from a book. Generate this format using: gitbook build ./myrepo --format=json.

Book Format

A book is a Git repository containing at least 2 files: README.md and SUMMARY.md.

README.md

Typically, this should be the introduction for your book. It will be automatically added to the final summary.

SUMMARY.md

The SUMMARY.md defines your book's structure. It should contain a list of chapters, linking to their respective pages.

Example:

# Summary
 
This is the summary of my book.
 
* [section 1](section1/README.md)
    * [example 1](section1/example1.md)
    * [example 2](section1/example2.md)
* [section 2](section2/README.md)
    * [example 1](section2/example1.md)

Files that are not included in SUMMARY.md will not be processed by gitbook.

Multi-Languages

GitBook supports building books written in multiple languages. Each language should be a sub-directory following the normal GitBook format, and a file named LANGS.md should be present at the root of the repository with the following format:

* [English](en/)
* [French](fr/)
* [Español](es/)

You can see a complete example with the Learn Git book.

Glossary

Allows you to specify terms and their respective definitions to be displayed in the glossary. Based on those terms, gitbook will automatically build an index and highlight those terms in pages.

The GLOSSARY.md format is very simple :

# term
Definition for this term
 
# Another term
With it's definition, this can contain bold text and all other kinds of inline markup ...

Variables and Templating

A set of variables can be defined in the book.json:

{
    "variables": {
        "host": "mybook.com"
    }
}

These variables can be used in the markdown files:

The host is {{ book.host }}

You can also use condition with these variables:

{% if book.host == "mybook.com" %}

{% else %}

{% endif %}

Variables of book.json are available in the book namespace. You can also access informations about the file itself and the gitbook version:

My file is {{ file.path }}
Modified at {{ file.mtime }}
Book built with GitBook {{ gitbook.version }}

Content References

You can use "content references," or conrefs, when writing books or documentation using GitBook.

Include a file from the same book:

{% include "./test.md" %}

or from a git repository (with a specific revision):

{% include "git+https://github.com/GitbookIO/documentation.git/README.md#1.0.1" %}

Includes can be used with variables (see Variables and Templating):

{% include book.ref_doc_readme %}

Ignoring files & folders

GitBook will read the .gitignore, .bookignore and .ignore files to get a list of files and folders to skip. (The format inside those files follows the same convention as .gitignore).

Best practices for the .gitignore is to ignore build files from node.js (node_modules, ...) and build files from GitBook: _book, *.epub, *.mobi and *.pdf (Download GitBook.gitignore).

Cover

A cover image can be set by creating a file: /cover.jpg. The best resolution is 1800x2360. The generation of the cover can be done automatically using the plugin autocover.

A small version of the cover can also be set by creating a file: /cover_small.jpg.

AsciiDoc

Since version 2.0.0, AsciiDoc can be used instead of Markdown, simply replace the .md by the .adoc extension. Chapters in the summary are detected from an ordered list in the SUMMARY.adoc.

Publish your book

The platform GitBook.com is like an "Heroku for books": you can create a book on it (public, paid, or private) and update it using git push.

Plugins

Plugins can be used to extend your book's functionality. Read GitbookIO/plugin for more information about how to build a plugin for GitBook.

Plugins needed to build a book can be installed using: gitbook install ./. You can find plugins at plugins.gitbook.com.

Debugging

You can use the options --log=debug and --debug to get better error messages (with stack trace). For example:

$ gitbook build ./ --log=debug --debug

How to use the latest commit from GitBook in gitbook-cli

To use the latest commit from GitBook/gitbook with gitbook-cli:

$ git clone https://github.com/GitbookIO/gitbook.git ./gitbook
$ gitbook versions:link ./gitbook

Now gitbook-cli will be using the ./gitbook folder.

You can uninstall it using: gitbook versions:uninstall latest.