GitBook

GitBook is a command line tool (and Node.js library) for building beautiful programming books and exercises using GitHub/Git and Markdown. You can see an example: Learn Javascript. An editor is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can follow @GitBookIO on Twitter.

How to use it:

GitBook can be installed from NPM using:

$ npm install gitbook -g

You can serve a repository as a book using:

$ gitbook serve ./repository

Or simply build the static website using:

$ gitbook build ./repository --output=./outputFolder

Options for commands build and serve are:

-o, --output <directory>  Path to output directory, defaults to ./_book
-f, --format <name>       Change generation format, defaults to site, availables are: site, page, pdf, json
--config <config file>    Configuration file to use, defualt to book.json

GitBook load the default configuration from a book.json file in the repository if it exists.

Here are the options that can be stored in this file:

{
    // Folders to use for output (caution: it override the value from the command line)
    output: null,

    // Generator to use for building (caution: it override the value from the command line)
    generator: "site",

    // Book title and description (defaults are extracted from the README)
    title: null,
    description: null,

    // GitHub informations (defaults are extracted using git)
    github: null,
    githubHost: 'https://github.com/',

    // Plugins list, can contain "-name" for removing default plugins
    plugins: [],

    // Global configuration for plugins
    pluginsConfig: {}
}

You can publish your books to our index by visiting GitBook.io

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.
• PDF: A complete PDF book with exercise solutions at the end of the book. Generate to this format using: gitbook pdf ./myrepo, you need to have gitbook-pdf installed.
• eBook: A complete eBook with exercise solutions at the end of the book. Generate to this format using: gitbook ebook ./myrepo, you need to have ebook-convert installed.
• Single Page: The book will be stored in a single printable HTML page, this format is used for conversion to PDF or eBook. Generate to this format using: gitbook build ./myrepo -f page.
• JSON: This format is used for debugging or extracting metadata from a book. Generate to this format using: gitbook build ./myrepo -f json.

Book Format

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

README.md

As usual, it should contains an 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 the SUMMARY.md will not be processed by gitbook.

Exercises

A book can contain interactive exercises (currently only in Javascript but Python and Ruby are coming soon ;) ). An exercise is a code challenge provided to the reader, which is given a code editor to write a solution which is checked against the book author's validation code.

An exercise is defined by 4 simple parts:

• Exercise Message/Goals (in markdown/text)
• Initial code to show to the user, providing a starting point
• Solution code, being a correct solution to the exercise
• Validation code that tests the correctness of the user's input

Exercises need to start and finish with a separation bar (--- or ***). It should contain 3 code elements (base, solution and validation). It can contain a 4th element that provides context code (functions, imports of libraries etc ... that shouldn't be displayed to the user).

---

Define a variable `x` equal to 10.

```js
var x =
```

```js
var x = 10;
```

```js
assert(x == 10);
```

```js
// This is context code available everywhere
// The user will be able to call magicFunc in his code
function magicFunc() {
    return 3;
}
```

---

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.

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)

Plugins

Plugins can used to extend your book functionnalities. Read GitbookIO/plugin for more informations about how to build a plugin for gitbook.

Default plugins:

• mathjax: displays mathematical notation in the book.
• mixpanel: Mixpanel tracking for your book

Other plugins:

• Google Analytics: Google Analytics tracking for your book
• Disqus: Disqus comments integration in your book
• Transform annoted quotes to notes: Allow extra markdown markup to render blockquotes as nice notes
• Send code to console: Evaluate javascript blockin the browser inspector's console