1 Proxmox VE Documentation
2 ========================
4 We try to generate high quality documentation for
5 {website}[{pve}], and choose to use
6 http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/[AsciiDoc] as base format.
8 The basic idea is to generate high quality manual pages, and assemble
9 them into a complete book, called link:pve-admin-guide.adoc[Proxmox VE
10 Administration Guide]. So we have one source, and generate several
11 documents from that. It is also possible to generate printable PDF
12 files, or ebook formats ('.epub').
14 When possible, we provide scripts to extract API definitions,
15 configuration or command line options from the source code.
17 To simplify the documentation task, we keep all Documentation within
18 this repository. It is possible to generate the docs without installing
19 any additional Proxmox packages with:
23 To update the auto-generate API definitions use:
27 NOTE: you need a fully installed development environment for that.
33 We generate a development package called 'pve-doc-generator', which is
34 used by other Proxmox VE package to generate manual pages at package
37 Another package called 'pve-docs' is used to publish generated
38 '.html' and '.pdf' files on our web servers. You can generate
39 those Debian packages using:
44 Common Macro definition in link:asciidoc/asciidoc-pve.conf[]
45 ------------------------------------------------------------
47 'asciidoc' allows us to define common macros, which can then be
48 referred to using `{macro}`. We try to use this mechanism to improve
49 consistency. For example, we defined a macro called `pve`, which
50 expands to "Proxmox VE".
52 For URLs which are used more than once, two macros should be defined:
54 * `{name-url}`, which just contains the http(s) URL
55 * `{name}`, which contains the complete link including the canonical
58 For example, the macro `{forum-url}` expands to {forum-url}, and the macro
59 `{forum}` expands to {forum}.
61 The plan is to add more such definitions for terms which are used more
64 WARNING: When asciidoc encounters a misspelled macro name, it will
65 silently drop the containing line!
68 Autogenerated CLI Command Synopsis
69 ----------------------------------
71 We generate the command line synopsis for all manual pages
72 automatically. We can do that, because we have a full declarative
73 definition of the {pve} API. I added those generated files
74 ('*-synopsis.adoc') to the git repository, so that it is possible to
75 build the documentation without having a fully installed {pve}
76 development environment.
81 'asciidoc' uses a fairly simple markup syntax for formatting content.
82 The following basic principles should be followed throughout our
89 Sections are formatted using `two-line titles', by adding a line of
90 the appropriate characters and of the same length as the section title
93 Level 0 (top level): ======================
94 Level 1: ----------------------
95 Level 2: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
96 Level 3: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
97 Level 4 (bottom level): ++++++++++++++++++++++
99 NOTE: Level 4 headings are currently not working for `manpage` outputs, you may
100 want to use `.SECTION' instead, which results in the same rendering, and this
101 level of Heading isn't displayed in any Index/TOC anyway.
103 Section titles should always be preceded by two empty lines. Each word
104 in a title should be capitalized except for ``articles, coordinating
105 conjunctions, prepositions, and the word to in infinitives unless they
106 appear as the first or last word of a title'' (see
107 http://web.mit.edu/course/21/21.guide/capitals.htm[Mayfield Electronic Handbook of Technical & Scientific Writing]).
116 Numbered lists should be created using the implicit numbering format:
132 Bulleted lists should be created using the '*' symbol:
145 If you need to have other elements on the same level than a list element you
146 can do this with the '+' symbol:
152 Anothe Sentence (or Block) on the continued second level.
159 Anothe Sentence (or Block) on the continued second level.
166 Labeled lists should be used to make lists of key-value style text
167 more readable, such as command line parameters or configuration options:
169 .Regular labeled lists
173 Element text paragraph
177 Another element text paragraph.
182 Element text paragraph
186 Another element text paragraph.
188 .Horizontal labeled lists
191 First Label Text:: Element text paragraph
193 Second Label Text:: Another element text paragraph.
199 First Label Text:: Element text paragraph
201 Second Label Text:: Another element text paragraph.
203 The FAQ section uses a special questions and answers style for
207 Text and Block Styles
208 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
210 'asciidoc' offers a wide range of default text styles:
212 * 'Emphasized text': created using \'text', used for emphasizing words
214 * `Monospaced text`: created using \`text`, used for command / program
215 names, file paths, in-line commands, option names and values
216 * *Strong text*: created using \*text*, used for emphasizing concepts
217 or names when first introduced in a section.
219 There are also different built-in block styles that are used in
222 Complete paragraphs can be included literally by prepending each
223 of their lines with whitespace. Use this for formatting complete
224 commands on their own line, such as:
226 pct set ID -option value
229 By surrounding a paragraph with lines containing at least four '-'
230 characters, its content is formatted as listing.
232 Use this for formatting file contents or command output.
235 Specially highlighted 'notes', 'warnings' and 'important' information
236 can be created by starting a paragraph with `NOTE:`, `WARNING:` or
241 WARNING: this is warning
243 IMPORTANT: this is important information
245 For each of these blocks (including lists and paragraphs), a block header
246 can be defined by prepending the block with a `.' character and the header
261 For example, block headers can be used to add file names/paths to file
267 Each {pve} installation contains the full documentation in HTML format,
268 which is then used as the target of various help buttons in the GUI.
270 If after adding a specific entry in the documentation you want to
271 create a help button pointing to that, you need to do the
274 * add a string id in double square brackets before your
275 documentation entry, like `[[qm_general_settings]]`
276 * rebuild the `asciidoc-pve` script and the HTML chapter file containing
278 * add a property `onlineHelp` in the ExtJS panel you want to document,
279 using the above string, like `onlineHelp: qm_general_settings`
280 This panel has to be a child class of PVE.panel.InputPanel
282 On calling `make install` the asciidoc-pve script will populate
283 a JS object associating the string id and a link to the
284 local HTML documentation, and the help button of your input panel
285 will point to this link.
291 [thumbnail="screenshot/gui-datacenter-search.png"]
293 First, it should be noted that we can display screenshots on 'html'
294 and 'wiki' pages, and we can include them in printed documentation. But
295 it is not possible to render them inside manual pages. So screenshot
296 inside manual pages should be optional, i.e. the text should not
297 depend on the visibility of the screenshot. You can include a
298 screenshot by setting the 'thumbnail' attribute on a paragraph:
301 [thumbnail="screenshot/gui-datacenter-search.png"]
302 First, it should be noted ...
305 The corresponding file need to reside inside folder
306 `images/screenshot`, and should be in `.png` image format. We include
307 the screenshots in printed documentation, and 'pdftex' uses the
308 density (DPI) specified inside the file. So all screenshots should use
309 the same density. We currently require the density set to 146 DPI, so
310 that we can display a 1024 pixels wide image. You should not include
311 larger screenshots (although it is possible).
313 You can use the `./png-cleanup.pl` script to set the correct
314 density. Simply use the following command to import a screenshot
318 # ./png-cleanup.pl screenshot.png images/screenshot/screenshot.png
321 TIP: You can use `identify -verbose screenshot.png` command to show
322 all image attributes (from debian package 'imagemagick')
324 .Default Screenshot Layout
326 [thumbnail="screenshot/gui-datacenter-search.png"]
328 We normally display screenshots as small thumbnail on the right side
329 of a paragraph. On printed documentation, we render the full sized
330 graphic just before the paragraph, or between the title and the text
331 if the paragraph has a title. It is usually a good idea to add a title
332 to paragraph with screenshots.
334 [thumbnail="screenshot/gui-datacenter-search.png", float="left"]
336 If you need to render many screenshots, it is possible to place them
337 on the left side, so you can alternate the thumbnail position using the
341 [thumbnail="screenshot/gui-datacenter-search.png", float="left"]
342 If you need to render many screenshots ...
345 Please avoid to many consecutive screenshots to avoid rendering
346 problems. Also verify the printed documentation to see if large
347 screenshots create layout problems.
353 Copyright (C) 2016-2017 Proxmox Server Solutions Gmbh
355 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
356 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
357 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
358 Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
359 copy of the license is included in the link:LICENSE[LICENSE] file.