.. highlight:: rst .. _toctree-directive: The TOC tree ============ .. index:: pair: table of; contents Since reST does not have facilities to interconnect several documents, or split documents into multiple output files, Sphinx uses a custom directive to add relations between the single files the documentation is made of, as well as tables of contents. The ``toctree`` directive is the central element. .. rst:directive:: toctree This directive inserts a "TOC tree" at the current location, using the individual TOCs (including "sub-TOC trees") of the documents given in the directive body. Relative document names (not beginning with a slash) are relative to the document the directive occurs in, absolute names are relative to the source directory. A numeric ``maxdepth`` option may be given to indicate the depth of the tree; by default, all levels are included. [#]_ Consider this example (taken from the Python docs' library reference index):: .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 intro strings datatypes numeric (many more documents listed here) This accomplishes two things: * Tables of contents from all those documents are inserted, with a maximum depth of two, that means one nested heading. ``toctree`` directives in those documents are also taken into account. * Sphinx knows that the relative order of the documents ``intro``, ``strings`` and so forth, and it knows that they are children of the shown document, the library index. From this information it generates "next chapter", "previous chapter" and "parent chapter" links. **Entries** Document titles in the :rst:dir:`toctree` will be automatically read from the title of the referenced document. If that isn't what you want, you can specify an explicit title and target using a similar syntax to reST hyperlinks (and Sphinx's :ref:`cross-referencing syntax `). This looks like:: .. toctree:: intro All about strings datatypes The second line above will link to the ``strings`` document, but will use the title "All about strings" instead of the title of the ``strings`` document. You can also add external links, by giving an HTTP URL instead of a document name. **Section numbering** If you want to have section numbers even in HTML output, give the toctree a ``numbered`` option. For example:: .. toctree:: :numbered: foo bar Numbering then starts at the heading of ``foo``. Sub-toctrees are automatically numbered (don't give the ``numbered`` flag to those). Numbering up to a specific depth is also possible, by giving the depth as a numeric argument to ``numbered``. **Additional options** If you want only the titles of documents in the tree to show up, not other headings of the same level, you can use the ``titlesonly`` option:: .. toctree:: :titlesonly: foo bar You can use "globbing" in toctree directives, by giving the ``glob`` flag option. All entries are then matched against the list of available documents, and matches are inserted into the list alphabetically. Example:: .. toctree:: :glob: intro* recipe/* * This includes first all documents whose names start with ``intro``, then all documents in the ``recipe`` folder, then all remaining documents (except the one containing the directive, of course.) [#]_ The special entry name ``self`` stands for the document containing the toctree directive. This is useful if you want to generate a "sitemap" from the toctree. You can also give a "hidden" option to the directive, like this:: .. toctree:: :hidden: doc_1 doc_2 This will still notify Sphinx of the document hierarchy, but not insert links into the document at the location of the directive -- this makes sense if you intend to insert these links yourself, in a different style, or in the HTML sidebar. In the end, all documents in the :term:`source directory` (or subdirectories) must occur in some ``toctree`` directive; Sphinx will emit a warning if it finds a file that is not included, because that means that this file will not be reachable through standard navigation. Use :confval:`unused_docs` to explicitly exclude documents from building, and :confval:`exclude_trees` to exclude whole directories. The "master document" (selected by :confval:`master_doc`) is the "root" of the TOC tree hierarchy. It can be used as the documentation's main page, or as a "full table of contents" if you don't give a ``maxdepth`` option. .. versionchanged:: 0.3 Added "globbing" option. .. versionchanged:: 0.6 Added "numbered" and "hidden" options as well as external links and support for "self" references. .. versionchanged:: 1.0 Added "titlesonly" option. .. versionchanged:: 1.1 Added numeric argument to "numbered". Special names ------------- Sphinx reserves some document names for its own use; you should not try to create documents with these names -- it will cause problems. The special document names (and pages generated for them) are: * ``genindex``, ``modindex``, ``search`` These are used for the general index, the Python module index, and the search page, respectively. The general index is populated with entries from modules, all index-generating :ref:`object descriptions `, and from :rst:dir:`index` directives. The Python module index contains one entry per :rst:dir:`py:module` directive. The search page contains a form that uses the generated JSON search index and JavaScript to full-text search the generated documents for search words; it should work on every major browser that supports modern JavaScript. * every name beginning with ``_`` Though only few such names are currently used by Sphinx, you should not create documents or document-containing directories with such names. (Using ``_`` as a prefix for a custom template directory is fine.) .. rubric:: Footnotes .. [#] The ``maxdepth`` option does not apply to the LaTeX writer, where the whole table of contents will always be presented at the begin of the document, and its depth is controlled by the ``tocdepth`` counter, which you can reset in your :confval:`latex_preamble` config value using e.g. ``\setcounter{tocdepth}{2}``. .. [#] A note on available globbing syntax: you can use the standard shell constructs ``*``, ``?``, ``[...]`` and ``[!...]`` with the feature that these all don't match slashes. A double star ``**`` can be used to match any sequence of characters *including* slashes.