We try to generate high quality documentation for {website}[{pve}], and choose to use AsciiDoc as base format.
The basic idea is to generate high quality manual pages, and assemble them into a complete book, called Proxmox VE Administration Guide. So we have one source, and generate several documents from that. It is also possible to generate printable PDF files, or ebook formats (.epub).
When possible, we provide scripts to extract API definitions, configuration or command line options from the source code.
To simplify the documentation task, we keep all Documentation within this repository. It is possible to generate the docs without installing any additional Proxmox packages with:
make pve-doc-generator.mk make index
To update the auto-generate API definitions use:
make update
|
Note
|
you need a fully installed development environment for that. |
We generate a development package called pve-doc-generator, which is used by other Proxmox VE package to generate manual pages at package build time.
Another package called pve-docs is used to publish generated .html and .pdf files on our web servers. You can generate those Debian packages using:
make deb
Common Macro definition in asciidoc/asciidoc-pve.conf
asciidoc allows us to define common macros, which can then be
referred to using {macro}. We try to use this mechanism to improve
consistency. For example, we defined a macro called pve, which
expands to "Proxmox VE".
For URLs which are used more than once, two macros should be defined:
-
{name-url}, which just contains the http(s) URL -
{name}, which contains the complete link including the canonical description
For example, the macro {forum-url} expands to {forum-url}, and the macro
{forum} expands to {forum}.
The plan is to add more such definitions for terms which are used more than once.
|
Warning
|
When asciidoc encounters a misspelled macro name, it will silently drop the containing line! |
We generate the command line synopsis for all manual pages automatically. We can do that, because we have a full declarative definition of the {pve} API. I added those generated files (*-synopsis.adoc) to the git repository, so that it is possible to build the documentation without having a fully installed {pve} development environment.
asciidoc uses a fairly simple markup syntax for formatting content. The following basic principles should be followed throughout our documentation.
Sections are formatted using ‘two-line titles’, by adding a line of the appropriate characters and of the same length as the section title below the title text:
Level 0 (top level): ====================== Level 1: ---------------------- Level 2: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Level 3: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Level 4 (bottom level):
|
Note
|
Level 4 headings are currently not working for manpage outputs, you may
want to use ‘.SECTION’ instead, which results in the same rendering, and this
level of Heading isn’t displayed in any Index/TOC anyway.
|
Section titles should always be preceded by two empty lines. Each word in a title should be capitalized except for “articles, coordinating conjunctions, prepositions, and the word to in infinitives unless they appear as the first or last word of a title” (see Mayfield Electronic Handbook of Technical & Scientific Writing).
Numbered lists should be created using the implicit numbering format:
. First level .. Second level . First level again
-
First level
-
Second level
-
-
First level again
Bulleted lists should be created using the * symbol:
* First level ** Second level * First level again
-
First level
-
Second level
-
-
First level again
If you need to have other elements on the same level as a list element you can do this with the symbol:
. First level .. Second level Another Sentence (or Block) on the continued second level. . First level again
-
First level
-
Second level
Another Sentence (or Block) on the continued second level.
-
-
First level again
Labeled lists should be used to make lists of key-value style text more readable, such as command line parameters or configuration options:
First Label Text:: Element text paragraph Second Label Text:: Another element text paragraph.
- First Label Text
-
Element text paragraph
- Second Label Text
-
Another element text paragraph.
[horizontal] First Label Text:: Element text paragraph Second Label Text:: Another element text paragraph.
creates
| First Label Text |
Element text paragraph |
| Second Label Text |
Another element text paragraph. |
The FAQ section uses a special questions and answers style for labeled lists.
asciidoc offers a wide range of default text styles:
-
Emphasized text: created using 'text', used for emphasizing words and phrases
-
Monospaced text: created using `text`, used for command / program names, file paths, in-line commands, option names and values -
Strong text: created using *text*, used for emphasizing concepts or names when first introduced in a section.
There are also different built-in block styles that are used in our documentation:
Complete paragraphs can be included literally by prepending each of their lines with whitespace. Use this for formatting complete commands on their own line, such as:
pct set ID -option value
By surrounding a paragraph with lines containing at least four '-' characters, its content is formatted as listing. Use this for formatting file contents or command output.
Specially highlighted notes, warnings and important information
can be created by starting a paragraph with NOTE:, WARNING: or
IMPORTANT::
|
Note
|
this is a note |
|
Warning
|
this is warning |
|
Important
|
this is important information |
For each of these blocks (including lists and paragraphs), a block header can be defined by prepending the block with a ‘.’ character and the header text:
.Title of List * First element * Second element * Third element
-
First element
-
Second element
-
Third element
For example, block headers can be used to add file names/paths to file content listings.
Each {pve} installation contains the full documentation in HTML format, which is then used as the target of various help buttons in the GUI.
If after adding a specific entry in the documentation you want to create a help button pointing to that, you need to do the following:
-
add a string id in double square brackets before your documentation entry, like
[[qm_general_settings]] -
rebuild the
asciidoc-pvescript and the HTML chapter file containing your entry -
add a property
onlineHelpin the ExtJS panel you want to document, using the above string, likeonlineHelp: qm_general_settingsThis panel has to be a child class of PVE.panel.InputPanel
On calling make install the asciidoc-pve script will populate
a JS object associating the string id and a link to the
local HTML documentation, and the help button of your input panel
will point to this link.
First, it should be noted that we can display screenshots on html and wiki pages, and we can include them in printed documentation. But it is not possible to render them inside manual pages. So screenshot inside manual pages should be optional, i.e. the text should not depend on the visibility of the screenshot. You can include a screenshot by setting the thumbnail attribute on a paragraph:
[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-datacenter-search.png"] First, it should be noted ...
The corresponding file need to reside inside folder
images/screenshot, and should be in .png image format. We include
the screenshots in printed documentation, and pdftex uses the
density (DPI) specified inside the file. So all screenshots should use
the same density. We currently require the density set to 146 DPI, so
that we can display a 1024 pixels wide image. You should not include
larger screenshots (although it is possible).
You can use the ./png-cleanup.pl script to set the correct
density. Simply use the following command to import a screenshot
image:
# ./png-cleanup.pl screenshot.png images/screenshot/screenshot.png
|
Tip
|
You can use identify -verbose screenshot.png command to show
all image attributes (from debian package imagemagick)
|
We normally display screenshots as small thumbnail on the right side of a paragraph. On printed documentation, we render the full sized graphic just before the paragraph, or between the title and the text if the paragraph has a title. It is usually a good idea to add a title to paragraph with screenshots.
If you need to render many screenshots, it is possible to place them
on the left side, so you can alternate the thumbnail position using the
float attribute:
[thumbnail="screenshot/gui-datacenter-search.png", float="left"] If you need to render many screenshots ...
Please avoid to many consecutive screenshots to avoid rendering problems. Also verify the printed documentation to see if large screenshots create layout problems.
Copyright © 2016-2021 Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the LICENSE file.